The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Solar, Man of the Atom #25 by Kevin VanHook and Peter Grau is really an expansion of the Dr. Eclipse/Solar fight that we saw in Secret Weapons #1. Expanding on the fight in Solar's title makes a lot of sense since we basically see Solar get killed by Eclipse and to have that happen exclusively outside of his book is a bit of a slap in the face to regular readers. That said, this issue doesn't really work, mostly because Eclipse's attack comes out of nowhere and the expanded fight doesn't really add to things. Granted, part of the point is that Eclipse is a surprise, but the issue doesn't flow properly. We get a scene of Phil at the lab discussing physics and then there's a fight, which isn't particularly entertaining. Since the powers of both Solar and Eclipse are so ill-defined and broad, their fight doesn't engage the reader. It's two guys flying around, shooting energy beams at one another kind of... it's boring. Not only that, but it seems like both are evenly matched thanks to their complete control over their own molecular structures... so how can Eclipse win? It's like this issue of Solar reverses the dynamic of Secret Weapons #1 where we saw the context for Eclipse's origin and his fight with Solar was brief and shocking -- here, the arrival/appearance of Eclipse is brief and the fight is too long.

Aside from that, there's a scene where Gayle calls the Eternal Warrior as that little group of characters prepare to fight Eclipse and Darque, but that adds little. This is an issue-long fight scene that is very, very boring. More than that, the dialogue between Solar and Eclipse isn't exactly witty or insightful. It's a little of pseudo-insane babbling on Eclipse's part and a lot of heroic declarations or wimpy pandering on Solar's part... I just wanted both characters to die somehow by the end.

Peter Grau's art is softer than Joe St. Pierre's, but not as competent. His work on the non-superhero scenes is great, but the fight is just awful. They go to Unreality, which is a Ditkoesque landscape that falls flat and looks lame. That Eclipse and Solar can alter their physical selves gives Grau license apparently to ignore any sense of anatomy or consistency for no reason.

I'm disappointed with this issue since it fails so utterly compared to Secret Weapons #1, which was far more interesting in its telling of the Eclipse/Solar fight.

Tomorrow, the story concludes in Secret Weapons #2.

3 Comments

• At November 21, 2009, Omni-man wrote:

  Solar reminds me of Cyclops cause he's got those goggles things, I always thought it would be cool if he ...

• At November 21, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  ...John Byrne didn't create Cyclops...

  Was that supposed to be a joke that I'm failing to get...?

• At November 21, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  I remember feeling ripped-off after buying this book. I hate most crossover books that extend a scene from an earlier ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Secret Weapons #1 by Joe St. Pierre kicks off a three-part story that I'll be rereading and discussing over the next three days. In my box is a small collection of Valiant comics and this story seemed like a good way to dive into the Valiant universe here since it is a crossover where characters from almost all of their books come together against a common threat. I wasn't that big into Valiant's output as a kid, but I did catch the occasional issue. My dad bought a few of the titles, so I flipped through them -- at one point, I read the trades for Unity and that Barry Windsor-Smith Solar story, but I barely remember them now. Along with Image, Valiant was an early '90s company, except while Image was artist-driven, Valiant was writer-driven by the likes of Jim Shooter, Bob Layton, and David Michelinie. As such, the comics weren't as flashy, sometimes having an almost retro look, one that didn't quite fit into the time period. But, there was some good stuff in there.

Secret Weapons #1 isn't that great of a comic, only because it almost exclusively all set up with one rather cool scene in the middle. It begins with Fred Bender, a former villain of Solar's who was left to die in Death Valley. He survives and goes to Master Darque, a Shadowman/Solar villain and occultist, to obtain powers again to kill Solar. Darque goes along with it since he wants Solar eliminated and Bender becomes Dr. Eclipse. He poses as Phil (Solar's alter-ego) to try and sleep with his girlfriend, but she realises that it isn't Phil quickly and calls for help, bringing Solar to the scene. The ensuing fight has Eclipse overpower Solar with ease, destroying him completely... except for his hand, which he then swallows whole while giving the oh-so-witty line of "Finger-lickin' good." The fight is done well and is a bit shocking since Solar is meant to have the power of god basically, so to have Eclipse dispatch him so easily sets the villain up as a major threat.

Meanwhile, Geoff is the Geomancer and he feels a disturbance/receives of a vision of the problem/I dunno, and begins to gather heroes to fight against Eclipse and Darque. So his scenes are mostly him going around and talking to various Valiant heroes -- the ones that appear on the cover, basically. The only scene here that's more than 'serviceable' is the one involving Aric, X-O Manowar... he wants to go hunting dinosaurs with Turok and doesn't care if Solar can't handle his business -- until Geoff says that Gilad (Eternal Warrior) doesn't think he could really be of any help, which, of course, gets Aric all fired up to help the cause. It's so transparent, but that it works shows off Aric's personality well.

All in all, it's a good beginning to the story, particularly in setting up Eclipse as a major threat. Joe St. Pierre has always reminded me of Dan Jurgens for whatever reason. I don't know why, honestly, since their art styles are as similar as they are dissimilar... maybe it's the whole writer/artist thing on a company title like this. As a kid, I didn't encounter too many people who both wrote and drew their own stories (where they didn't own the character -- although the Image guys mostly hired writers, so my exposure was less than you'd think), and Dan Jurgens was the main one over at DC on Superman and Justice League of America, so maybe seeing a single person write and draw a title like this made me think of him. I like St. Pierre's art. It's a very clean, classic style. As with most Valiant books, it's not eye-catching the way Image's stuff was, but, aside from his rendering of the two Harbingers, he doesn't really make any mistakes. It's solid and gets the job done.

Tomorrow, Solar #25, which expands on the Solar/Eclipse confrontation.

5 Comments

• At November 20, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Sadly, Joe St. Pierre adopted one of those horrific Liefeld/McFarlane imitation styles a few years later at Marvel.

  It's ...

• At November 20, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Agreed.

• At November 21, 2009, Ultimate Matt wrote:

  Ah, Dr. Eclipse. At some point, I managed to work up a whole theory about how that character was the ...

• At November 21, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Huh -- I rather liked Doctor Eclipse as a concept, myself; essentially, wasn't he a necromantic parody of Solar, substituting ...

• At November 21, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  " It's weird that, as bad as Liefeld's art is from a technical standpoint, somehow technically-solid artists trying to ape ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Transformers #64 by Simon Furman and Jose Delbo continues the "Matrix Quest" storyarc as, this time, we get a trio of Autobots sent to a planet to find the Matrix. They were told to be on the look-out for any odd resurrections or events, and the reappearance of a Klud, a giant leviathan/whale-like beast, seems like a sure sign that the Matrix is nearby. During the intial contact, Longtooth loses a leg to the beast and becomes an Ahab-esque figure as he hunts the Klud, obsessed with killing it. At the same time, Lord Thunderwing and his group arrive in search of the Matrix and the Klud provides the key clue to discovering it.

This was probably my favourite issue so far, mostly because I like how Longtooth and Thunderwing mirror one another in their obsessions. Longtooth's injury focuses him on revenge to the point where he does everything he can to forget his past -- he's no longer an Autobot, he's just a hunter. Thunderwing's obsession with the Matrix is similar as, once he discovers its whereabouts, he calls off his forces, seemingly forgetting the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. One of his followers comments that this is the second time that Thunderwing has stopped them mid-fight from killing Autobots to go off in search of the Matrix. Both are losing themselves in their obsession. In the end, Longtooth has the chance to kill the Klud, but doesn't, escaping his obsession, while Thunderwing continues with his.

While the writing had me engaged throughout, Jose Delbo's art continues to deteriorate as this issue is cluttered and just ugly at times. In some cases, that works -- Thunderwing becoming more monstrous in appearance is a great idea. But, other pages, are just difficult to look at they're so ugly and ill-composed. However, he does deliver a fantastic splash page of the Klud breaking through the surface of the water -- and his expressions for Longtooth are usually good.

We get a bit of history about the Matrix and how it's the lifeforce of the Autobots' living god Primus -- who created the Autobots in his image to continue his fight against Unicron... and has recently revealed their whereabouts to Unicron, making finding the Matrix essential. Wait, he revealed their whereabouts to his enemy? Time to find a new god, I think...

Next Thursday, it's the conclusion of "Matrix Quest" with a cover that promises a Thunderwing/Optimus Prime fight.

3 Comments

• At November 19, 2009, Ritchard wrote:

  In an earlier issue, the Autobots learned that Primus had slumbered within Cybertron for millions of years, because Unicron would ...

• At November 19, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  The comic said a few weeks, I think... I got the impression that the events here were taking place at ...

• At November 19, 2009, Ritchard wrote:

  Ah, it's been a while since I re-read Matrix Quest. Maybe I remember thinking it should've been a matter of ...

Random Thought! I've yet to try and get my girlfriend to read comics. She's read some, but always because she wanted to. Like, I got her the X-Files mini-series that Wildstorm put out a year ago as it was coming out -- because she's a fan of the show and I asked if she'd want it. She's read Fell since she asked for some comics to read and that seemed like what she would like. She's open to reading more, but doesn't have a strong enthusiasm for it -- and I don't want to press the matter. We've got plenty of other things in common, so why do I need to push comics on her? Besides, she already watches wrestling with me a lot of the time... can't anything just be mine?

Random Thought! My favourite sandwich: bologna and Cheez Whiz on white bread. I make double-decker versions to save bread. Put Cheez Whiz on one side of the first slice, lay the bologna on it, put CW on one side of another, lay it on top, put CW on the other side, blogna, CW on side of the last slice... rip off the top of the crusts. Tasty, tasty, tasty. I've eaten that sandwich (albeit not in the double-decker form) since I was a little kid. It was the only sandwich I'd eat then -- I also like PB&J and roast beef with (honey) mustard and onions now -- and my grade one teacher actually thought that eating that would make me stupid. She told my mom that. Seriously. My mom, being a smart lady, realised that that's bullshit and it's important that her son actually eat lunch. I continue to eat those sandwiches to this day and have a Master's...

Random Thought! Wrestling links: High Road/Low Road on Batista's heel turn (this was a hard one for me since I really like his heel turn -- I hope I did my negative part well... but, honestly, there aren't a lot of negatives with this one except for 'I don't like Batista,' which isn't a great argument for something this detailed). a roundtable preview of this past Sunday's TNA Turning Point PPV where I contributed my predictions for the event and went 2-6 (ouch!); and wrestler of the week, which I also contributed to. I love contributing to these roundtable group things. Usually, it's fairly easy and low effort -- takes ten to fifteen minutes at most. And they've always been my favourite pieces to read as you get a lot of perspectives in one place.

Random Thought! What's up with the Beast in SWORD #1? It's like he has no idea what running that sort of agency would entail as far as personal time...

Random Thought! More plugging time... years ago, I wrote a couple of comics for an anthology that's since been repackaged from its original graphic novel format into single issues available through a POD company. Tales from the Plex #3 features "Down by the River," which is about a guy and his pregnant girlfriend... I have vague memories of this one as being written for an artist who wanted something Poe-like... despite my having read no Poe at the time. Tales from the Plex issues fourteen and fifteen feature "Murder from Beyond the Stars," a 22-page story split up over the two issues. I'm somewhat fond of that story, illustrated by Brice Hall (who was graphics editor at my university paper while I was an A&E editor), it's about the murder of the president of Mars. I think I went a bit overboard with trying to cram a lot in through various storytelling techniques, but it's fun. And features a detective named Anthrax Palmer, which I think we can all agree is a pretty cool name. Here are the first four pages:

Random Thought! It may seem stubborn and stupid, but I'm not buying a Human Target book that's written by anyone other than Peter Milligan.

Random Thought! Dark Avengers #11: A lacklustre issue that doesn't really do anything. The stuff at the beginning with Victoria Hand is good, but the rest feels like treading water. No real insight offered or gained. And I hate Greg Horn's art. The past two issues have left me pretty cold.

Random Thought! Spider-Woman #3: This series is pretty good, but nothing amazing. I find Jessica's narration a little grating at times, a bit too self-conscious and self-pitying. Alex Maleev's art veers from amazing to ugly a bit too much as he finds the right mix of photoreference, computer effects, and his actual skill -- which he possesses quite a bit of.

Random Thought! I'll be reviewing The Authority: The Lost Year #3 for CBR, but... how did it only take one issue to make me groan and want to drop the book? I don't care if that twist at the end was Morrison's original plan, it's rather stupid. The first issue of the series had such potential with the Authority in the real world and, now, it's become very typical and mundane. Also, I would prefer to never see another comic inked by Trevor Scott who butchers Darick Robertson's art. Look for me saying all of that nicer at CBR sometime in the next few days.

Random Thought! So, Cerebus Archive is POD only now and glamourpuss looks like it's going that way... fuck. I won't miss Cerebus Archive too much since it was interesting but not 'must read,' but glamourpuss is absolutely brilliant and unique. Sure, the fashion stuff was hit or miss, but the focus on art? Brilliant.

Random Thought! Where was the Red Hood and Scarlet's HQ?

Random Thought! For future reference: telling me not to do something or dismissing something I do in a rude and dickish way? Best way to get me to do it more. Especially when it produces so many comments...

Random Thought! Collected here from my Twitter account is a little topic I wrote about on Saturday night. I've stuck it in one paragraph with no editing...

Tonight is "read a bunch of .pdfs of comics for reviewing and for pleasure" night. I'm really behind on the second part of that idea. I actually dislike reading comics in pdf form since they're made with seeing the full page in mind and you can't do that here and actually READ the words. Also, double-page spreads done horizontally? Not fun on a stationary screen. Not that I'm complaining. I love being able to check things out this way and love being sent pdfs... just not my ideal format. However, I do tell most publishers/creators to send me pdfs instead of physical copies for immediacy and clutter-saving reasons. Also, pdfs are a great way to get reviews. Not just because it doesn't involve paying for a comic but because it guarantees getting the book. Shops can't order everything and over the past year I've had to beg off reviewing a half dozen or so books because the shop didn't have them. pdfs also allow reviewers to keep up with books when OTHER reviewers call the first issue(s) so future reviews can be informed. I also try and buy any books I read in pdf and really enjoy (sometimes in singles sometimes in trade). I don't keep pdfs after using them. Also, pdfs lead to advance reviews that tell people ahead of Wednesday to buy a comic -- or not buy it... okay, so there's a downside... There is a wisdom, though, in not having reviewers keep up with everything since limiting them to doing what they already buys means a better shot at good reviews. Though, I doubt anyone's given that serious thought really. The 'keeping reviewers' informed is important if only because it means they'll be inclined to review something other than part 1 of a story. I mean, who wants reviews of JUST of part 1 and MAYBE the last part of a story? And I say that as a reviewer who's never been afraid to jump in mid-story for a review... for good or ill. Really, though, pdfs benefit the smaller, overlooked titles. The stuff you WANT reviewed (good or bad, honestly) just so people know of it. Otherwise, it's really left up to: what a reviewer is already buying, what s/he feels like spending money, or thinks will be on the rack. And, depending on the shop, don't bet on low-selling titles having a big rack presence. Hell, sometimes higher selling titles don't. And, depending on the shop, don't bet on low-selling titles having a big rack presence. Hell, sometimes higher selling titles don't. So, no reviews (aka free press) for those comics because of one shop not having a rack copy. Reordering will get ME a copy, but not a review. Also, honestly, pdfs have turned me on to a lot of books that I probably wouldn't have given a shot otherwise -- books that I then reviewed and made others aware of. Maybe not a lot of people picked them up, but some did and that's worth it, right?

Random Thought! Boston Legal was a fantastic show and I can prove it with two words: Denny Crane.

Random Thought! What I Learned from The Brave and the Bold #29: the '60s were better because people were friendly despite Vietnam and riots and other bad things, okay?

Random Thought! Man, I was really enjoying the hell out of V. by Thomas Pynchon until the final 150-200 pages where it seemed like he didn't know where he wanted to take things anymore.

Random Thought! I should go write a review or something...

46 Comments

• At November 18, 2009, Michael wrote:

  Greg Horn? Ewwww...

• At November 18, 2009, rwe1138 wrote:

  Yours is the first complaint about Beast in SWORD I've read that had nothing to do with the art.

• At November 18, 2009, Patrick C wrote:

  Red Hood and Scarlet's HQ was in the back of a truck.

• At November 18, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  rwe1138 -- He acted like someone completely new to that lifestyle. It threw me off a bit.

  Patrick -- I gathered, ...

• At November 18, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  We've got plenty of other things in common, so why do I need to push comics on her?

  Because they are ...

• At November 18, 2009, HondoBrode wrote:

  You do know that the writer of the upcoming Human Target comic is the creator of the character, right ? ...

• At November 18, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  In fairness, the Dark Avenger sissue -- based on Bendis's hype for it -- is more about building up the ...

• At November 18, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Also, I would prefer to never see another comic inked by Trevor Scott who butchers Darick Robertson's art.

  Trevor Scott used ...

• At November 18, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  My Canadian grandmother introduced me to the wonder that is Cheez Whiz many a long decade ago. But the Whiz ...

• At November 18, 2009, Patrick C wrote:

  I totally agree about the art. It took me 2 reads to figure out they were in a truck, ...

• At November 18, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I don't have it front of me, but from memory, up until he goes off the roof, you don't see ...

• At November 18, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Random Thought! If a Bill Paxton Pinball Machine could seem this cool :http://coronacomingattractions.com/news/worlds-only-bill-paxton-pinball-machine, can you imagine what a Grant Morrison ...

• At November 18, 2009, Craig wrote:

  RASL shipped this week in a #1-5 shrink-wrapped with temporary tattoos (two from RASL, two from Bone). I only mention ...

• At November 18, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Maybe that isn't the Beast in SWORD. It could be a blue mountain goat. I actually like the ...

• At November 18, 2009, Dan Felty wrote:

  What is POD? Print on demand? How would that apply to a self-published comic?

  I really enjoyed the first ...

• At November 18, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  FGJ -- I know that it's a medium, but it's a medium that's usually appreciated on an individual basis, so ...

• At November 18, 2009, dantecat wrote:

  Denny Crane - Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!!

• At November 18, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Denny Crane: never lost, never will.

• At November 18, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  Shatner is an international embarrassment.

• At November 18, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  FGJ -- I know that it's a medium, but it's a medium that's usually appreciated on an individual basis, so ...

• At November 18, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  I have a girlfriend already... plus, I'm not a Sandman fan really...

• At November 18, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Shatner is an international embarrassment.

  You call this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEZVwQptvWw an embarrassment?

  I have a girlfriend already... plus, I'm not a Sandman ...

• At November 18, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  I don't think she'd like Sandman...

• At November 18, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  But ALL chicks like Sandman!

  If not, then Tarot: The Black Witch, perhaps?

• At November 18, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  I was thinking Criminal, actually. But, neither she nor I am in a big rush there... she's not as big ...

• At November 18, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Make her nervous for a laugh - lend her Young Liars first up, just to see how she reacts.

• At November 18, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  She's read some of my CBR reviews of that book, so she's not entirely unfamiliar with it.

• At November 18, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  If she likes more girlish stories, how about Marvel Divas? It's not as bad as some people have claimed; ...

• At November 19, 2009, Logan wrote:

  My opinion on Shatner: He is a mess and a total dick, but he plays great characters.

• At November 19, 2009, Kelly Thompson wrote:

  Coming a little late to the party, but I would not recommend Marvel Divas to anyone, male or female. ...

• At November 19, 2009, JackKing wrote:

  I had no idea that fight was on a rooftop. I thought it was in some huge underground complex or ...

• At November 19, 2009, Joe wrote:

  I usually hang out with Japanese girls and comics don't have as much as a stigma there as they do ...

• At November 19, 2009, Dexter wrote:

  Comics are a medium and most folks are exposed to the medium through newspaper comics or other 'funny pages.'

  But that's ...

• At November 19, 2009, Mer wrote:

  Chad - have you introduced her to Y? I've introduced a lot of girl friends to comics with ...

• At November 19, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Thanks for the tips, but... read the the actual post where I give my thoughts on introducing my girlfriend to ...

• At November 19, 2009, Steven R. Stahl wrote:

  DARK AVENGERS #11 is one of the worst "Avengers" issues Bendis has done, if not the worst. The villains aren't ...

• At November 19, 2009, Apodaca wrote:

  "My favourite sandwich: bologna and Cheez Whiz on white bread."

  CRACKER

• At November 19, 2009, HondoBrode wrote:

  @ Chad - Yes, Peter Milligan is great, but Len Wein, the creator of the character, is working both on ...

• At November 19, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Yes, I am well aware of who Len Wein is. And I don't have a fondness for the character so ...

• At November 19, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  My wife will read a comic if I want her to, but there are very few comics that appeal to ...

• At November 19, 2009, Stefan Wenger wrote:

  I loved SWORD. I'm surprised to find myself adding it to my small roster of (just 12) books I ...

• At November 19, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Thanks for the tips, but... read the the actual post where I give my thoughts on introducing my girlfriend to ...

• At November 20, 2009, Mateo wrote:

  Can somebody just comment and let me know what the move of glamourpuss to a POD company means? I ...

• At November 20, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  What Print on Demand simply means is that they only print copies if someone orders them. So if, say, you ...

• At November 20, 2009, Mateo wrote:

  thanks for the info brian. would I go to any POD company site, or in glamourpuss's case, the comic ...

• At November 20, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Comixpress, I believe, is handling Glamourpuss.

  So you'd got to their site.

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Damage Control #4 by Dwayne McDuffie and Ernie Colon concludes the second mini-series dedicated to the superhuman clean-up crew, which was a tie-in to "Acts of Vengeance." I never read any other issues of Damage Control, but, right off, I should point out that, reading this issue, I didn't feel I needed to. Not in a 'this was crap' way, but in a 'I understood everything without any problems' sort of way, which is odd since the plot seems somewhat involved here. Basically, Damage Control was bought by an asshole who has cut costs causing its workers to go on strike at the same time that the "Acts of Vengeance" story has happened, causing a lot of destruction. So, Nick Fury uses SHIELD to help the former owner buy it back after discovering that the new owner bought it, partly, with money borrowed from the Kingpin. In the end, things are good -- and the workers, during the course of the story, even forego the strike to save lives.

The tone of this comic is lighter than most, but isn't quite a comedy either. While good, I think I would have preferred it to go one way or the other since the jokes aren't that funny and the drama isn't that compelling. It's an odd mish-mash of styles, neither working completely all of the time. The only scene that works as comedy is when Fury needs to get SHIELD's accountant's take on if buying Damage Control is doable and we get Agent Pierce, an actual SHIELD agent who bursts in with the unconscious body of a would-be assassin. He looks like a parody of a gung-ho agent who then gets on the computer to show a quick three-hour presentation on what SHIELD should do, practically giddy over spreadsheets and such. The actual plot stuff involving Kingpin and Damage Control doesn't totally work, particularly since the Kingpin walks away having made a lot of money. But, this is a pleasant enough read that really just can't settle on a tone. It seems like McDuffie wants to push things in a comedic direction but is held back a bit, which is a shame, because I always like irreverent comedy in superhero books. Ernie Colon's art is cartoonish and would fit the comedic tone if it was allowed to develop. His strongest work here is when he's hamming it up a bit.

Tomorrow, another Transformers comic as "Matrix Quest" continues.

11 Comments

• At November 18, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Y'know, I'm starting to wonder if you, Chad, have had a terribly traumatic childhood that LED you to read all ...

• At November 18, 2009, Bwhig wrote:

  Of course the "drama isn't compelling" to you, you've only read one issue of the series! If you don't know ...

• At November 18, 2009, Neal K wrote:

  I can't speak for Chad, Tom, but I know I read and enjoyed a lot of comics as a kid ...

• At November 18, 2009, Sallyp wrote:

  You really should hunt down the other issues, they are a hoot.

• At November 18, 2009, Greg McElhatton wrote:

  Yeah, it's kind of hard to find the build up of drama compelling if you only read the final issue ...

• At November 18, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Yeah, as a kid, I was big on just getting whatever looked interesting at the time. Or, trading what I ...

• At November 18, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Of course the "drama isn't compelling" to you, you've only read one issue of the series!

  COP OUT!

  If that's the case, ...

• At November 18, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  The AoV Damage Control miniseries was easily the weakest of the three Marvel published in the late 1980s, so this ...

• At November 18, 2009, Casey wrote:

  Can Super-Pro be far behind?

• At November 18, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  On the Kingpin plot being unsatisfying, this is largely because Damage Control aren't superheroes. Other stories make it clear ...

• At November 19, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Comics have amped up the "logical" human casualties of super-powered action scenes to the point that Damage Control would now ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Hawkeye #1 by Chuck Dixon and Scott Kolins was the beginning of the second solo mini-series dedicated to the character. Appearing shortly after Mockingbird died in Avengers West Coast #100, it has Clint up in the Canadian wilderness taking on hunters that aren't 'sporting' enough for his tastes. If that sounds more like a Wolverine story, it comes off as one in execution. A brooding loner finding solace in the Canadian wilderness, fighting off hunters that use snowmobiles and shotguns to hunt caribou? If that isn't a Wolverine story, I don't know what is. It also works for Hawkeye, thankfully. But barely. The fact that his wife just died gives Dixon the freedom to do whatever he wants because you can write off almost anything when a person is grieving.

The execution of the idea is okay. After his run-in with the hunters, Hawkeye discovers a secret base/institution of some kind and it's doing some freaky stuff involving wolfpeople... and it's security team is headed up by Trick Shot and Javelynn, a pair that are basically evil versions of Hawkeye and Mockingbird. A nice idea... apparently Trick Shot trained Hawkeye, too. There's some fighting and a helicopter blows up and it's revealed that Viper is the one in charge. Not too bad, not that good either.

Scott Kolins's art is quite different from where it is now. I kind of prefer it here. It's more striking, uses blacks well, kind of has a Jae Lee Lite feel going on. The figurework isn't always the best, nor is the storytelling, but the drawing itself is decent.

I never read the remaining three issues, but this one doesn't really make me want to. Anyone have fond memories of this comic?

15 Comments

• At November 17, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  So the hunters hunter, becomes the hunted?

• At November 17, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  YES!

• At November 17, 2009, E. Wilson wrote:

  I love that cover; it's so over-the-top in its 90's-ness. SAME BAD ATTITUDE! BRAND NEW GRUDGE!, indeed. I suppose this ...

• At November 18, 2009, Paul wrote:

  Man, I thought nostalgia was supposed to be a fond look at the past, but you've disliked almost every single ...

• At November 18, 2009, Ted wrote:

  But if you look at things in the past you liked, then you start to miss the good old times, ...

• At November 18, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  That's funny, I didn't make it past the first issue of this series, either.

• At November 18, 2009, danar wrote:

  I think I missed the first issue, but I picked up one or two of the subsequent issues. They ...

• At November 18, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Hmmm. Didn't realize that Scott Kolins was around that long.

  I really enjoyed his Flash run back in the day.

• At November 18, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  I also only own this issue, and none of the following. I remember it being okay... but I think I ...

• At November 18, 2009, chad wrote:

  i read the issue but decided not to go after the rest of the series for felt it was a ...

• At November 18, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Paul -- It's a catchy title that I came up with prior to rereading any of these comics. Don't take ...

• At November 18, 2009, Neal K wrote:

  I think the over-sell on the cover is great, too. Everything in the '90s was pumped up to 11, ...

• At November 18, 2009, Tom wrote:

  As a Hawkeye fan, I kinda like this one...of course, I prefer ANY other solo Hawkeye adventures to this, and ...

• At November 18, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I've read two Hawkeye #1s, but this isn't either one of them. When I saw you were doing Hawkeye, ...

• At November 18, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  During th 90's, it was one of my favourite reads. So yes, yes I do.

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Darkhawk #19 by Danny Fingeroth and Mike Manley has no cover. Well, my copy has no cover. It hasn't had a cover for so long that I don't recognise the cover to this issue honestly. I have no idea when or how the cover got ripped off, but I'm used to seeing Toad's ugly face on the first page splash acting as the cover. Rereading this issue for the first time in a long time, I struck by how bad it is. Bad in a way that tells me why I never got into Darkhawk despite his darker, Spider-Man-esque character seeming like something my younger self would like on the surface. No, this comic pretty much killed Darkhawk for me, I believe, because it is very, very, very bad. Bad in that obvious sort of way where you wonder what the hell happened to allow this comic to be produced.

First, the art... cluttered, horribly influenced by the artists that would found Image as Manley throws in lots of little lines everywhere to suggest more detail. Characters are posed awkwardly, the actions sequences are nearly incomprehensible, and Spider-Man doesn't look cool... how can Spider-Man not look cool?

The writing... I'm not sure what the point of this story is. There's this armour that's kind of like Darkhawk's and people want it, including a guy named Portal, the US government, and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Why? Don't know. What does the armour do? No idea. Should they fight over it? I guess? Spider-Man and Darkhawk show up to help things possibly and there's a lot of fighting and the issue ends with Sleepwalker showing up, wanting the armour... so I guess the armour is important somehow?

There are no motivations explained for most of the characters, the fight scene is there because, well, you need a fight scene, and I'm left with an empty feeling as I quickly forget what I just read since it's not the sort of comic you remember five minutes later, hence the very short post. It's a race against time before this comic goes back into the box and I forget all about it. That will be nice.

15 Comments

• At November 16, 2009, Aaron Thall wrote:

  Sigh... Another Darkhawk hater...

• At November 16, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Not the character, just the comic that I read today.

• At November 16, 2009, Craig wrote:

  The War of Kings: Darkhawk mini that came out recently featured a reprint of Darkhawk #1. I'd have reviewed it ...

• At November 16, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Craig, Darkhawk appeared in a couple of New Warriors storylines that were decent enough.

• At November 16, 2009, Aaron Thall wrote:

  I loved Darkhawk. He was Spidey but with cooler powers. (And once 1993 rolled around, DH started being called Marvel's ...

• At November 16, 2009, Neal K wrote:

  There is still a surprising amount of Darkhawk love in the world, though even as a kid of about ten ...

• At November 16, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  I totally dug the Darkhawk comics at the time, and even rereading them I imagine they'd be covered by the ...

• At November 16, 2009, P. Boz wrote:

  Yeah, I completely missed the Darkhawk train back in the day. Guess I wasn't missing much.

• At November 16, 2009, A.J. wrote:

  I had this comic.

• At November 17, 2009, Busterchops wrote:

  Darkhawk was a series that I really enjoyed for the first while. Still, I remember being pretty upset when ...

• At November 17, 2009, Aaron Thall wrote:

  The first 25 issues (plus the Spider-Man Round Robin storyarc and the Sleepwalker issue) work better when read together. It's ...

• At November 17, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  Darkhawk was cool on Robert Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up storyline "League of Losers", but then he was with a bunch of ...

• At November 17, 2009, danjack wrote:

  Never, ever liked Mike Manley's art. it may be my personal kryptonite.

  DFTBA

• At November 17, 2009, Corey wrote:

  This issue is definitely a bad example of the series. The first 15 issues hold together pretty well, and with ...

• At November 18, 2009, noodles wrote:

  @Pedro: I was also going to mention the League of Losers, which was awesome. Go read it if you haven't!

Reign of the Supermen was a huge story, about as big as the first two parts of this trilogy combined. I do like how that built up: the death of Superman was quick (relatively), the mourning was longer, and the return was appropriately large unto itself. This story began with four four-page previews in Adventures of Superman #500 that gave us our first glimpses of the four replacement Supermen. They were (going from left to right in the image above):

SuperboyMAN: The teenage/young adult clone of Superman (and, later, we learn, Lex Luthor) is brash and hot-headed. He makes a deal with a TV station to give them the exclusive rights to follow him around and they keep him furnished with leather jackets and Clark Kent's old apartment. No idea how he got that earring, honestly. I actually like his costume design... aside from the jacket and haircut. The bodysuit is a solid upset of the Superman costume. His stories tend to focus on him trying to do good, but not having the experience to do the hero thing as well as he could. He also has a few run-ins with others, including Steel who gives him a good lecture after a pilot dies because Superboy wasn't thinking. One bit I really like about this character is how he gets pissed off when someone calls him Superboy.

Cyborg: This was my favourite of the four Supermen when I was a kid. Him and the Last Son of Krypton were the two that I gravitated toward, because they were the only two that had a shot of actually being the real Superman brought back to life. Of course, neither of them turned out to be the real Superman, but each acted a nice '90s version of the character. The Cyborg with the idea of Superman being... well, a cyborg. That's a cool '90s idea for the character, right? It sure as hell made me stand up and take notice when I was ten. Very high concept, very 'modern,' very... stupid. This character's stories have one big mistake early on when, in his first issue, he narrates in the first person. How exactly does that work with him turning out to be evil and bent on destruction? That seems like a case of Dan Jurgens not playing fair with the readers... maybe that's explained in the second half of this story, but that really stood out to me this time. Otherwise, his first full issue is a good one as he goes to Cadmus to get Doomsday's body, strapping him to a small asteroid and leaving him in space.

The second Cyborg issue is probably the best stand-alone issue of this story, "Prove It," which is really a long article by Ron Troupe about earning Clark Kent's job by being on-hand to witness the Cyborg saving the White House from a terrorist attack. It's told entirely (save one page at the end) through Troupe's article with illustrations from Jurgens -- and not single images, but whatever he thinks needs to be shown to tell the story well. It was one of my favourites as a kid and it's still a good read. I don't think it would be published as the lead article in any newspaper since they tend to favour... you know, journalism, not personal essays (it would work as a companion op/ed piece, though). If there's a single issue that made me want to like Troupe, it's this one.

The Cyborg turns out, of course, to be evil and the 'master' of Mongul and helps destroy Coast City. My reading of the story ends there, which is a pretty good place to stop halfway through -- the big reveal/twist. Again, not sure how the first-person narration fits into his true nature, though.

Steel: The only character that stood out as being 100% not Superman -- and he never claims to be. The closest we get is some psychic who argues that Superman's spirit has found a new body. Steel interacts with the other Supermen a bit, but his story really focuses on establishing John Henry Irons as he battles against the White Rabbit who is selling advanced military guns to gangs -- guns called Toastmasters that, apparently, Irons designed for the military a while ago. He's since been on the run, living under the name Henry Johnson, but, a kid getting gunned down and being buried under rubble after the Doomsday attack causes him to build the armour and try his best to honour Superman. Of the four, he's the easiest to like and root for, because he's the most heroic, the one most dedicated to simply helping others -- if only because the whole 'I'm the real Superman' crap doesn't affect him. As far as he's concerned, he's just trying to fill a hole left by Superman's death and honour a man who saved his life once. Also, Jon Bogdanove's art in these issues is fantastic. I haven't really discussed the art done by these guys yet, but Bogdanove is probably my favourite. His work stands out with bold, angular lines. I'll always have a soft spot for Jurgens since I read Superman more than any of the other books as a kid (and Jurgens did experiment with layouts quite a bit during this period), but Bogdanove is more to my sensibilities.

The Last Son of Krypton: Reading the first half of this story, it's obvious that this character should have become the real Superman, if only because he was the most interesting of the two candidates. He represents the violent, dark side of superheroes from the late '80s/early '90s and that's an interesting portrayal of Superman. The idea is that death changed him -- he's sensitive to the light, he embraces his cold Kryptonian heritage, and he's far more violent and extreme. The biggest change to his powers is an energy that he can project from his hands. He begins as an energy being created/rescued by robots in the Fortress of Solitude and, then, he gains physical form by entering the corpse of Superman, which he recognises as his body. Now, the trajectory of his story is pretty easy to map (but no less interesting): he begins violent and cold and, gradually, works his way back to normal. Simple and yet compelling, and also shows what makes Superman Superman without the endless preaching about killing or excessive violence... allow him to regain his humanity to show just how important Clark Kent and the human aspect of the character is.

Honestly, that none of these characters turn out to be the real Superman is a cheat. I thought so as a kid and think so now. I honestly can't say with certainty that DC promised that one of them would be Superman for real, but they definitely suggested it strongly. If I'm to pick a moment where I first became cynical about comics (and life, actually), it was this story. That doesn't mean it's not a good story, just that I think they made the wrong choice. By not having any of these characters take up the mantle, it's a big of a slap in the face to the readers. Towards the end of this first half, I get the idea that the creators were more interested in surprising the readers and throwing them off track than telling a quality story that makes sense as a whole. I flipped ahead just to check and they do explain how the Last Son of Krypton turns out to be the Eradicator despite us seeing him as an energy being inhabit Superman's corpse -- or how it's suggested that, after the destruction of Coast City, he enters the Kryptonian suit that turns out to be carrying the real Superman. It's almost like they switched gears around the halfway point because, with the revelation that the Cyborg was evil, the surprise of who the real Superman would be was no longer there: process of elimination left the Last Son of Krypton.

These first 11 issues of the story work well at balancing the needs of establishing each of the Supermen and having them interact and compete for the role of Superman. The Cyborg is mostly a non-factor until the last issue or two when he gets involved with the alien ship attacking Coast City and really beats up on the Last Son of Krypton. That twist is surprising since the Cyborg seemed like the real deal -- what with his first-person narration and DNA matching Superman's.

The reactions of the supporting cast to these various Supermen are quite good. Lex Luthor (who we'll remember is the original Lex in a cloned body posing as his Australian son -- and shacking up with Supergirl) is secretly in a rage since Superman was finally gone and, now, there are FOUR of him! Lois struggles to deal with the two obvious contenders for being a resurrected Superman not having Clark Kent as part of the deal. One bit I loved is how she finally gets a few moments with Steel and walks away thinking that he is most like the Superman she knew and loved despite him having no connection to the original at all. Bibbo (who some of you like) puts on a costume and tries to honour Superman. He even rescues a puppy that was drowned with some of its siblings since the owner couldn't afford to take of them. He names it Krypton, but the collar he gets made comes back with the name Krypto on it -- nice little joke.

I think the supporting cast works better here than in the previous stories since those were supposed to be so big and monumental that the focus on anyone other than the core, prototypical supporting characters was distracting, whereas, here, this is a story much more of its time in conception -- the death of Superman is epic, is timeless... four guys vying to be Superman isn't as much.

The first half deals mostly with setting these guys up and having them confront one another and prove themselves. Next week, I'll look at the second half, which is more a singular story as the group of Supermen have to team up to take down the Cyborg and Mongul... and the real Superman returns.

25 Comments

• At November 16, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  I've got no time for the first two stories in this trilogy, but The Return of Superman (aka Reign of ...

• At November 16, 2009, Chris Gannon wrote:

  Now, please keep in mind that I haven't reread the story since i was 12, so it's literally been half ...

• At November 16, 2009, Scott Steubing wrote:

  I've always loved this event. The death and funeral of Superman are just lead-ins to the Reign.

  Am I the only ...

• At November 16, 2009, Russkafin wrote:

  No, Scott, you're not alone, I don't like it either. There is nothing in these early stories that would ...

• At November 16, 2009, The Dude wrote:

  I think that later on the Superboy ongoing, they had him be a clone of the director of the Cadmus ...

• At November 16, 2009, The Dude wrote:

  Well, Russkafin beat me to it :-)

• At November 16, 2009, Matthew Johnson wrote:

  It may not be hinted at in the stories, but the promotional material strongly suggested that none of them might ...

• At November 16, 2009, Adam wrote:

  I was also all over the Cyborg being the real deal, and yeah, I also felt cheated by his first-person ...

• At November 16, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Adam -- Yeah, Jurgens did set up the Cyborg's interest in Coast City in the "Prove It" issue when he ...

• At November 16, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  I agree it would have been a more effective story if the Eradicator/Last Son had been, essentially, Superman without a ...

• At November 16, 2009, Doron wrote:

  i think superboy's earring was actually part of a tag that Cadmus gave all their clones

• At November 16, 2009, Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources wrote:

  [...] Nostalgia November Day 01 -- The Punisher 2099 #1 Nostalgia November Day 02 -- Batman: Shadow of the Bat ...

• At November 16, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  This was my favorite part of the whole "Death of Superman" deal as well. After all, being completely sure that ...

• At November 16, 2009, P. Boz wrote:

  It's funny that you mention the Bogdanove art 'cause that's pretty much all I remember from reading this stuff back ...

• At November 16, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  Yeah, I liked Bog's art too.

  Most of the other artists working on Superman books at the time had very standard ...

• At November 16, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  You really need to get the Superman: Doomsday DVD, Chad.

  I think they made the 'Behind the scenes' doco, about the ...

• At November 16, 2009, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  I loved these! Kesel and Grummet's Superman (Don't call him Superboy!) was fun and goofy and made me pick up ...

• At November 16, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  I liked this story. The Kesel/Grummett Superboy is/was probably my favorite, but it was a strong effort from all the ...

• At November 16, 2009, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Steel was also great, and the Cyborg stuff is where the plot was progressing the most.

  I think the Eradicator stuff ...

• At November 16, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I just HATE the way it now informs every Superboy story with "wah I'm half evil" angst.

  Because science has proven ...

• At November 16, 2009, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  You kid, but they just about came out and said that in the latest issue of Adventure Comics.

  It was bizarre. ...

• At November 16, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  FGJ -- I'm sold. When I can, I'll get the DVD.

  And I still hate that Luthor element in Superboy if ...

• At November 17, 2009, John Seavey wrote:

  I hate the Luthor retcon for several reasons. One, it's lazy. Once you've established that Superboy is a mix of ...

• At November 17, 2009, Gerry wrote:

  Tommy Monaghan: the Superman Years

  Know what I mean?

• At November 17, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  You kid, but they just about came out and said that in the latest issue of Adventure Comics.

  It was bizarre. ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

X-Factor annual #4 by John Byrne and Walter Simonson focuses on the idea of Jean Grey being a bride of Set, while also continuing a cool idea of creating a twisted version of the Namor/Susan Richards relationship with Jean and Attuma. But, like with yesterday's Amazing Spider-Man annual, I begin with the back-up features.

There's the standard "Saga of the Serpent Crown" chapter (part ten I believe) that I skipped. There's a two-page X-Factor pin-up by Jon Bogdanove. Then there are two stories, one an "Inferno" epilogue that's not that clever and, the other, a Dr. Doom/Magneto story that makes me hate shared universe corporate comics, so expect a rant in... oh, now...

Dr. Doom summons Magneto to find out why he's given up trying to conquer the world and is content teaching at Xavier's school. Really, the story is just an excuse to retell both characters' origin stories, but, at one point, we learn that Magento had a helmet made that alllowed him to control and alter the minds of others. I assume this happened elsewhere and he used it to eliminate bigotry and prejudice from some people's minds... and then stopped. Why? Because that was wrong or something? Really? Am I to believe that a member of a group that is hunted and persecuted as much as mutants, given the chance to eliminate all prejudice and racism (not just for mutants either) from the minds of humanity decided that that was wrong? Because someone is that fucking stupid... "But it's wrong to use superpowers to alter people's minds!" Fuck you, no it's not. I'm sorry, but when you have the ability to eliminate something like racism from humanity and you don't do it, you are an evil monster. You just are. Screw free will, screw whatever sense of morality precludes you from doing it, in this case, it's the 100% right thing to do. Is it an invasion of their privacy and rights? Yes, absolutely it is, but that does not matter. This is something I argued when discussing Mark Millar's Ultimate X-Men run where, again, the demands of not ending the story precludes anyone doing this -- so why raise the idea? So the person who says they won't do it looks like the dumbest, worst person to ever live? I'm not discussing the idea in 'comic book' terms, but in real world terms: it is wrong and immoral not to do it. (I've been making bold statements like that a lot lately... odd...) If ever there was a comic that proved Magento is evil, whichever one first introduced this idea is it. He had a chance to end all prejudice and bigotry, decided not to, he's an evil motherfucker.

The "Inferno" epilogue isn't all that great. It features two FBI agents drawn like and meant to evoke the Blues Brothers, except that that doesn't actually lead to any comedy or funny moments. Then why do it? They really just run around New York trying to figure out what happened the night before as people describe all of the weird shit that went down during "Inferno." In the end, X-Factor tell them it was terrorist using a hypno ray or something and the whole thing is proclaimed a hoax. The story ends with a demon picking up a newspaper to read about the hoax.

The main story is a a decent read. Jean Grey has been summoned to be a bride of Set -- so the story begins, literally, with her flying through the air, unconcious (eyes open though), and the Beast is hanging onto her leg. He eventually thinks hard enough to get through to her, so she uses her telekinesis to disrupt the tractor beam... and they fall into the ocean. Jean is still unconscious and when the Beast tries to get her to the surface, they encounter Attuma and his cronies sabotaging a water treatment plant. Attuma mistakes Jean for Phoenix and remembers the time when Phoenix rejected him -- and he's having none of that, so he kidnaps Jeans, while his cronies go to kill Beast. He's saved by Andromeda, Attuma's daughter and total warrior woman. Meanwhile, Ghaur is pissed off, because they need Jean to be one of Set's brides or Set won't be happy or show up or something... am I the only one who's amused by the idea that they're luring a god to Earth with the promise of a harem of superpowered women?

Anyway...

Beast and Andromeda go after Jean... who has been dressed in a seashell bikini and place in an air-filled love den, while Attuma watches her sleep from his water-filled study... and wearing nothing but boxers. When she wakes up, he goes to her room and basically says to her that rejecting him made him hurt... emotionally... and, now, he's going to get his 'retribution.' As he puts it, "A PITY THERE WILL BE NO PLEASURE IN THIS FOR YOU... AS THERE MOST CERTAINLY WILL BE FOR ME [...]" This guy is scummy... he doesn't just want to rape her, he wants her to know he's raping her... because he's attracted to her... and she rejected him... christ...

Jean uses her powers to toss him about, so he breaks the air-filled room's walls in order to drown her and, then, I presume, have sex with her corpse? He seems like the type from what we've seen... (make up your own joke about the pink flesh being a turn-off so he wants something a bit more blue-tinged...) Thankfully, Andromeda and Beast show up where Beast takes Jean away and Andromeda challenges her father to a fight to the death via some Atlantean cultural thing normally reserved for first-born males... but she's a warrior and fuck tradition. Sadly, she can't really hack it against her dad, but, before he can kill her, Ghaur kidnaps her to be a bride of Set.

He also manages to get Jean since she was underwater too long and the only way to save her from dying is to allow Ghaur to take her since he has the ability to rescue her. The scene where Beast decides what to do is done rather well: let her did or let her be a Serpent god's bride? (Though, he doesn't know the second part in that much detail.) I'd say he makes the right decision... deal with the problem at hand and deal with the consequences as they arise.

This is an odd story and I find the Attuma/Jean stuff somewhat disturbing/intriguing. After years of the somewhat playful/friendly/harmless Namor/Susan Richards stories, it's interesting to see a darker twist on this using one of Namor's chief rivals. I don't think it would work beyond a one-off instance like this, though. I'm kind of surprised at how dark it goes in that scene... it's not THAT explicit, but it's explicit enough that any adult would get the meaning quite clearly. I guess it's done with enough care that it falls into that category of things adults get that kids don't... since I never got the entire meaning of what Attuma was going to do.

The art is done by John Byrne with Walter Simonson doing 'embellishment,' so it's an odd hybrid of the two men's visual styles. It's got thicker lines and more liberal uses of blacks thanks to Simonson, but is still clearly Byrne's art. But, the two men's work fits well here together. The comic itself provides a comparison for readers since the Doom/Magento story was also drawn by Byrne (inking himself), so you can compare and contrast. Simonson really takes a lot of the small details out of the art (or Byrne didn't add them initially since he wasn't doing the full art) and I think it's stronger. The art is less cluttered and more bold in the main story.

Again, lots of bang for your two bucks, though a few things that kind of overwhelm everything else... at least for me.

87 Comments

• At November 15, 2009, Mark Black wrote:

  Why is it wrong and immoral to not take away someone's free will?

• At November 15, 2009, Gavin wrote:

  I don't think I was buying a single Marvel comic series on a regular basis in 1989 because this type ...

• At November 15, 2009, AJ wrote:

  Regardless of whether or not Magneto should have used powers to eliminate racism, the fact that it's even brought up ...

• At November 15, 2009, J-so wrote:

  Great book - Atlantis Attacks was the first multi-book story I ever collected. Brings back great memories, even if ...

• At November 15, 2009, Zyargeikunn wrote:

  Are you saying that any person who could erase prejudice from human beings should do so and would act immoral ...

• At November 15, 2009, T. wrote:

  I'm black and I would think forcibly removing racism is a totally scummy thing to do, so I suppose that ...

• At November 15, 2009, Gavin wrote:

  T., have you ever read the Squadron Supreme 12-issue limited series from the 80's? That is exactly what the ...

• At November 15, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Honestly... why wouldn't you? Seriously. If you had the power, why wouldn't you use it to alter the world to ...

• At November 15, 2009, Gavin wrote:

  Tsk, tsk, tsk...Chad....don't take this the wrong way, but you are very young and have a lot to learn about ...

• At November 15, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Fair enough... also, I don't necessarily believe in everything I raised there (raising some points to stimulate discussion) -- nor ...

• At November 15, 2009, Yom wrote:

  As a member of M.E.A.T., I find your invective against Lord Magnus to be insulting. Also, I'm trying to ...

• At November 15, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Why WOULD you allow people to do things that you consider wrong?

  Because what I consider wrong may not, in fact, ...

• At November 15, 2009, P. Boz wrote:

  I find the imposition of one's beliefs on another to be wrong. I think that anyone is entitled to ...

• At November 15, 2009, Luis Dantas wrote:

  For the record, I'm fairly certain that the mind control device Magneto used to have is the one from Avengers ...

• At November 15, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  However, people force their views on others all of the time -- laws, for example, force one conception of what ...

• At November 15, 2009, Luis Dantas wrote:

  Neither Laws nor political systems (both are strongly linked, btw) actually define what is "right" or "wrong", although I will ...

• At November 15, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Honestly... why wouldn't you? Seriously. If you had the power, why wouldn't you use it to alter the world to ...

• At November 15, 2009, FuryOfFirestorm wrote:

  @Why Magneto doesn't 'erase the hate':

  "X-Men vs. Avengers" #4 (of 4) will answer your question.

• At November 15, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Chad, you're just wrong, here. Sickeningly wrong. You arguably have more poorly-developed ethics than a Marvel supervillain.

  You have also ruined ...

• At November 15, 2009, The Mutt wrote:

  Chad, your heart is in the right place, but if I ever hear about you planning to bend the minds ...

• At November 15, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Mutt, I wouldn't do that... mostly because I do agree with 90% of what's being said here -- I just ...

• At November 15, 2009, Buzz wrote:

  Its wrong to dominate someone else's existence for any reason, good or bad. Going into their mind and erasing part ...

• At November 15, 2009, Daniel O' Dreams wrote:

  We have laws that prohibit actions not thoughts or beliefs (not YET anyway). I think even Magneto can see the ...

• At November 15, 2009, Scavenger wrote:

  To throw some gas on the fire,

  "If a person believes they have free will, does it matter if they ...

• At November 15, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Well, that's one of my problems with Xavier: he's shown a willingness to use his powers in that fashion and ...

• At November 15, 2009, David B wrote:

  No matter how noble the end, it does not justify evil means - to argue otherwise is to be on ...

• At November 15, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Yes, but this isn't physical force or dominance... this is altering the way someone thinks without them knowing that anything ...

• At November 15, 2009, Dave wrote:

  As some people have pointed out, and Omar explained in detail, laws only limit what you can and can't do, ...

• At November 15, 2009, polpster wrote:

  stop posting shite

• At November 15, 2009, kisskissbangbang wrote:

  Never mind Magneto for the moment; let's talk Doom. Isn't there a Mantlo-written issue of Super-Villain Team-up in which Doom ...

• At November 15, 2009, Buzz wrote:

  It absolutely is dominance.

• At November 15, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Sorry, I miswrote that: it's not physical dominance. It's a different sort that perhaps requires a different response/different thinking about ...

• At November 15, 2009, Buzz wrote:

  I don't think it is different. I don't see how removing physicality changes the situation at all. Tricking someone is ...

• At November 15, 2009, mrjayberry wrote:

  Did you actually read the Magneto/Dr. Doom story. I will be reviewing it now but I thought that Magneto did ...

• At November 15, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  I like where you took that, Buzz. Some very good points there.

  Was just discussing this with the girlfriend and came ...

• At November 15, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  mrjayberry -- The story here has Magneto saying he used the helmet on some people before deciding that continuing would ...

• At November 15, 2009, alorama wrote:

  The suggestion that it is somehow "moral" to alter peoples' minds against their will, as long as you're doing ...

• At November 15, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  The suggestion that it is somehow "moral" to alter peoples' minds against their will, as long as you're doing ...

• At November 15, 2009, Ted wrote:

  There seems to be large, amd a rather arrogant, assumption here, and that is that our minds haven't already been ...

• At November 15, 2009, Buzz wrote:

  I agree that we don't know why we think the things we think, or what social and biological events have ...

• At November 15, 2009, Buzz wrote:

  As far as the anti-rape question, I wouldn't use the power, although I imagine I would be constantly tempted to ...

• At November 15, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  In X-Men vs The Avengers, Magneto used the helmet on a World Court magistrate, then Captain America tried to stop ...

• At November 15, 2009, Ted wrote:

  If you drug a woman and have sex with her without her knowledge or consent but without the application of ...

• At November 15, 2009, Buzz wrote:

  I said "More or Less" because obviously some people are more influential, for better or worse. But we all have ...

• At November 15, 2009, Dave wrote:

  "If you had the power to eliminate all pain from the world, and you decided not to use that power, ...

• At November 15, 2009, Ted wrote:

  You don't "decide" to do anything.

  There's a difference, at least in the senses that I use the terms, between a ...

• At November 15, 2009, Rene wrote:

  I would not use the helmet to remove racism and prejudice from everyone's minds, but I would use it to ...

• At November 15, 2009, Ted wrote:

  there is always the option of a change of heart or mind, because we all exist within our own corners ...

• At November 15, 2009, T. wrote:

  Also, why is removing racism against mutants necessarily a good thing? People SHOULD have a healthy fear of mutants, ...

• At November 15, 2009, Ted wrote:

  People SHOULD have a healthy fear of mutants, because honestly they are very dangerous to be around and reckless as ...

• At November 15, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  "The question here is whether it would be rape if you altered the woman's desires so that she wanted to ...

• At November 15, 2009, Alex wrote:

  I had that issue, it was cool!

• At November 15, 2009, Ted wrote:

  To make some one do something 'against their will', we normally say that they made to do something they don't ...

• At November 15, 2009, Dave wrote:

  @Ted

  In my experience, the term "evil" always presupposes some level of free will. Again, we don't call earthquakes or ...

• At November 15, 2009, T. wrote:

  The problem is, the X-Men aren't a fringe group or a gang like the Bloods and the Crips. They ...

• At November 15, 2009, Ted wrote:

  Clearly, though, there is an additional factor at play there.

  I think you are looking at circumstances too narrowly. Person #1 ...

• At November 16, 2009, Dave wrote:

  I think assuming that any one group are "the spokespeople for mutantdom" is inherently reductionist. There was no election. ...

• At November 16, 2009, Dave wrote:

  "I would say that, no matter how many times you replayed it, Person #1 on that day never would have ...

• At November 16, 2009, Ted wrote:

  You need to apply that extra level of critical thinking and analysis in order to draw a final conclusion.

  OK, I ...

• At November 16, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  According to quantum physics, many events are neither completely determined nor completely random, at least at the subatomic level. ...

• At November 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  the Avengers and the Fantastic Four imperil the Earth at least as often but never seem subject to the same ...

• At November 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  Or, to put it another way, you've mentioned that you're black and conservative. The NAACP is on T.V. a lot, ...

• At November 16, 2009, Bob wrote:

  I'm kind of surprised there's not more outrage over the attempted rape of Jean Grey. Wasn't this back when comics ...

• At November 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  In the case of the X-Men, sure the X-Men don't represent all of mutantdom. But when I read Grant ...

• At November 16, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  Hm, I don't think that's the proper time and place for me to say that I would rather prefer that ...

• At November 16, 2009, Ted wrote:

  According to quantum physics, many events are neither completely determined nor completely random

  I don't claim to be an expert on ...

• At November 16, 2009, Bernard the Poet wrote:

  Juat wanted to say that I really enjoyed this discussion. Well done, Chad for putting the cat among the pigeons.

• At November 16, 2009, Rene wrote:

  T., I'm not sure how a "racism-removel mind control device" would work exactly. But it seems to me that removing ...

• At November 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  And really, your charges against the X-Men can be made against many other superheroes who routinely battle murderous opponents who ...

• At November 16, 2009, Gokitalo wrote:

  Honestly... why wouldn't you? Seriously. If you had the power, why wouldn't you use it to alter the world to ...

• At November 16, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  >> do you stick to your sense of morality and not do it because it is wrong to dominate someone's ...

• At November 16, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  So you're going to remove racism and prejudice from everyone's mind, eh? For starters, I guess that means 100% ...

• At November 16, 2009, Slare wrote:

  Gotta say I agree with a lot of what Chad is saying. Many here seem to assume ...

• At November 16, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Rob -- Nationalism IS a bad thing and based entirely on the randomness of where you're born. As for abortion, ...

• At November 16, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Prejudice, in a general sense, is a natural side-effect of how the human mind works. It is impossible for ...

• At November 16, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  I was WONDERING why this post had 70-odd comments.

  The ol' ethics-of-mind-control discussion-starter, eh? Nevett, you diabolical.

• At November 16, 2009, P. Boz wrote:

  I just wish the telepaths would take some freaking ethics courses. It works for business, right? Right?

• At November 16, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Ted,

  "I can see no real difference between telepathy and the sum of experience and circumstance that leads us to make ...

• At November 16, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  I read Squadron Supreme years ago... found the ideas good, the execution horrible.

  And the movie Minority Report has nothing on ...

• At November 16, 2009, Thenodrin wrote:

  This was really hard to read because of the horrible immoral rant that began it.

  If you honestly think that forcing ...

• At November 17, 2009, T. wrote:

  And the movie Minority Report has nothing on the short story, which is much harsher and direct in its idea ...

• At November 17, 2009, Ted wrote:

  Even if you don't believe in the concept of free will, surely you can see that telepathy eliminates the possibility ...

• At November 17, 2009, Ted wrote:

  If you honestly think that forcing people to behave in a way you, personally, find to be "better" is a ...

• At November 17, 2009, Ted wrote:

  forcing your personal value system on the whole world is actually an illustration of an invididual's sense of morality trumping ...

• At November 18, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  I've been searching for the Anti-Life equation for years, when I find it all you people are so screwed, just ...

• At November 18, 2009, tony wrote:

  Maybe this is being looked at a little one-dimensionally? Why would telepathy have to be used to in a carte-blanche ...

• At November 18, 2009, Luis Dantas wrote:

  Rob Schmidt:

  So you're going to remove racism and prejudice from everyone's mind, eh? For starters, I guess that means 100% ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Amazing Spider-Man annual #23 by Gerry Conway, David Michelinie, and Rob Liefeld is actually part four of the 1989 Marvel crossover "Atlantis Attacks," which took place in all of their annuals for that year. It's a neat way to have a big event that's also kept separate from the monthly titles allowing fans who aren't interested in the event to not get dragged in -- and for it actually feel like an event with 64-page books. This is also the time that I think Marvel really started using their annuals well with the main story acting as a chapter in the crossover and, then, a bunch of cool back-up features that allow for short stories or cool two-page things. All of the 1989 annuals had a chapter in the "Saga of the Serpent Crown," which tied into "Atlantis Attacks" and this issue has five other back-up features. I'll get them out of the way first before jumping into "Atlantis Attacks" and the main story where Spider-Man and She-Hulk team up to fight the Abomination... and it's all drawn by Rob Liefeld.

The first back-up story is a retelling of Spider-Man origin as told through a school report by Peter Parker. Does that narrative device make reading this story again any less tedious? No. There are certain characters whose origins I never ever want to see again in any form and Spider-Man is one of them (Batman, Superman, maybe Hulk and Iron Man being others). Never again.

Then, there's the FIRST Aunt May solo story (is that true, by the way?) where a fat tabloid photographer is trying to rent a room at her place in order to discover how Peter gets all those great Spider-Man pics. But, May sees him for the scumball he is and chases him away with a broom... mostly for suggesting that Peter may... get ready... drink beverages of an alcoholic nature!!!!!!!! It doesn't say, but I think Peter is meant to be in high school, so the idea is possibly outside the realm of possibility, but still. Or, is he in college? It's hard to tell since they give no clear indication of when this story takes place -- and in the main continuity, Peter is married to Mary Jane... but was he even 21 then? How old is he? Is he 21 yet? Also, the legal drinking age in Ontario? 19. (I know, I know, it's lower in other places, but I'll mock Americans whenever I can... you can join in... it's fun...)

There's a short thing on Spider-Man's spider-sense that I skipped because who cares...

Fred Hembeck does two three-page pieces that are fun. One is a countdown of the top 30 Spider-Man villains. His list differs from the results of the recent CSBG poll Brian took.

Hembeck's top ten/CSBG's top ten:
1. "The Goblin Brothers" (Green Goblin and Hobgoblin) / Green Goblin (by default)
2. Dr. Octopus / Dr. Octopus
3. Kraven / Venom
4. Kingpin / J. Jonah Jameson
5. Dr. Doom / Kraven
6. Vulture / Hobgoblin
7. Scorpion / Kingpin
8. Venom / Mysterio
9. The Burgler that Shot Uncle Ben / Electro
10. J. Jonah Jameson / Sandman

Granted, Venom had just debuted then, but the list varies a bit. His other feature is a recounting of the Spider-Man/J. Jonah Jameson feud, which is a lot of fun. If I recall, Hembeck did similar features in the other two Spider-Man titles' annuals that year, too. One list I recall was a countdown of the most important women in his life -- I can't remember if Aunt May or Mary Jane took the top spot... I think his mom was #3 and Gwen Stacey was #4... who would you have given the top spot to: May or MJ? I'm voting Mary Jane...

That just leaves that Serpent Crown saga story, but I skipped it too.

Bringing us back to the main event of Spider-Man, She-Hulk, the Abomination, and Rob Liefeld. Now, I know all of you are just waiting for him to begin mocking Liefeld's art in a way that makes my comments in other posts that were called too harsh, mean, and generally convinced people I'm an asshole look like compliments, but that's not going to happen, because... well, it's Rob Liefeld. We all know what to expect and, honestly, this stuff isn't that bad. It's still not what I would call good art, but it's not the horrible scratchings that we all associate with Liefeld completely.

My one big Liefeld comment: in the big tits '90s, one thing that got lost is that Liefeld has always been a legs man. The man loves drawing women's legs, which is on display here with Mary Jane and She-Hulk. His breasts... well, they remind me of how women who were A-cups and then got breast implants look. Yes, they're bigger than average, but they're also not THAT big. They're just round solid objects situated around three feet apart from one another on the woman's chest and never ever move. Which some may find attractive, but not me (for the record).

From what I understand, "Atlantis Attacks" has the Atlanteans join forces with the Deviants or something to attack the surface world -- and bring the serpent god Set to earth and rebuild the Serpent Crown. Part of bringing Set back is finding seven brides for him, so one of the running threads through the annuals is the Deviant High Priest Ghaur putting the mark of Set on the throat of various MU women. In this issue, that's She-Hulk. She's all physically impressive and she's green, so she's obviously the perfect bride for a serpent god.

In this issue, Ghaur and his people need to get Tyrannus back -- he's currently the Abomination -- so they use a machine to turn Emil Blonsky back into the Abomination, but it goes wrong and the Abomination is a mindless monster. It goes on a destroying spree, and She-Hulk and Spider-Man respond to stop him. The surrounding plots for both characters are nothing special. Spidey takes pictures of the navy mobilising to defend the US against the Atlanteans for the Bugle and She-Hulk yells at J. Jonah Jameson for his editorial suggesting that Manhattan solve its homeless problem by shipping them all to New Jersey (to be fair, he does offer to pay for their bus fare). It's not terribly involved as they fight the Abomination and eventually set him on fire, whereupon he jumps off a pier and hits a boat, which explodes.

The storytelling here is odd as random panels featuring characters that play no role whatsoever are thrown in like Aunt May watching new coverage of the events at home and hoping that Peter is smart enough to stay away -- or the Kingpin standing on his balcony with the narration captions talking about how he's concerned since this is his city. Did Liefeld just draw those characters on his own or were they in Conway's original plot and Michelinie was stuck with them? They add nothing at all and stand out.

Then again, Michelinie's scripting is odd in spots. Like Ghaur saying "Hail Set" at the end of a page and the first caption on the next (in a panel where Spider-Man is taking those pictures) reads "HAIL? MAYBE IN COLORADO!" What the fuck is that? What does that even mean? That's the oddest example I could find, but the scripting is wacky like that throughout the issue.

However, at the time, this cost $2.00 US ($2.75 in Canada) and you sure got your money's worth with, what, one 30-page story and a half-dozen extras/back-up features? That's how you do annuals and I wish they still did that. I loved looking through these as a kid (my dad had all of them), especially the cool back-up features like Hembeck's stuff. Great fun.

Tomorrow, I'll discuss the other "Atlantis Attacks" book that I own, X-Factor annual #4.

15 Comments

• At November 14, 2009, Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources wrote:

  [...] Day 12 -- Transformers #63 Nostalgia November Day 13 -- Adventures of the Super Mario Bros. #5 Nostalgia November ...

• At November 14, 2009, mrjayberry wrote:

  I just reread all my loose issues of Altantis Attacks the other day. Good times. I agree I much prefer ...

• At November 14, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Ah yes, I think I recall an infamous Liefeld drawing (of the Enchantress, maybe?) from Heroes Reborn, in which the ...

• At November 14, 2009, Ellis Wyatt wrote:

  If someone could provide a link to the above-mentioned Enchantress piece, it'd be appreciated. I need a good companion pic ...

• At November 14, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Eh, lay off him. It's something that's been done to death. The first ten years or so of it was ...

• At November 14, 2009, The Crazed Spruce wrote:

  Y'know, I think Liefeld is the only artist whose work grew steadily worse with practice. (Not counting those who ...

• At November 14, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  I also was a big fan of Marvel's annuals. The year before was the Evolutionary War storyline, which I really ...

• At November 14, 2009, Adam wrote:

  I remember buying this annual at a 7-11 after a Phillies game. Ah, youth. What was better than ...

• At November 14, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  "What was better than a Slurpee, a ballgame, and a giant honkin' comic book?"

  What IS better than a slushy (as ...

• At November 14, 2009, Nostalgia November Day 14 — Amazing Spider-Man Annual #23 | Comics … | Spiderman 4 | Wallpapers | Comics | Photos | Pictures | DVD Movie | Trailer | Clips | Icons | Games | PSP | Xbox wrote:

  [...] posted here: Nostalgia November Day 14 — Amazing Spider-Man Annual #23 | Comics … AKPC_IDS += "2491,";Popularity: unranked [?] ...

• At November 15, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I skipped the annuals that year since I'm not much interested in Atlantis, but I did try to get the ...

• At November 15, 2009, Rob Ocelot wrote:

  Chad, I find your comment about Peter drinking alcohol interesting. One of the longstanding things about Peter as a ...

• At November 15, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Actually, Peter Parker did drink on at least a few occasions as far back as 1988. He got (accidentally) ...

• At November 15, 2009, Paul O'Brien wrote:

  According to Marvel Index #7, it's actually the second Aunt May solo story (the first being a back-up strip in ...

• At November 16, 2009, Neal K wrote:

  I have very fond memories of the Atlantis Attacks annuals. I got a lot of them (though not all) ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Adventures of the Super Mario Bros. was a Valiant title from the early '90s of which I've read exactly one issue. It's really a split comic between Mario and his gang and Captain N who you'll remember from the cartoon -- basically, real guy gets sucked into a Nintendo universe. The comic is different, because it only used characters developed by Nintendo, not third-party characters simply featured in Nintendo games... ironically, meaning Seamus from Metroid shows up even though she never appeared in the cartoon despite the bad guy from the game being one of the main baddies (how that works escapes me). Enough context, more comic...

Eh, it's not great. The Mario story is goofy in the extreme, which is fitting since the characters are pretty goofy. The King of the Mushroom Kingdom has bought a new pimpin' crown that has a one of those electronic displays for words and his chief advisor, Wooster, thinks it's awful. It is pretty tacky, but the King will hear none of it (it was a good deal at the Koopamart, after all... wait, they're at war with Koopas and shop at their store? AND use their currency?), so Wooster quits. He's then kidnapped by the Koopas, which convinces the King that he's a traitor. Mario and Toad go to rescue him and, after fighting their way through dozens of absolutely useless Shyguys, they discover him making nice with Bowser. But, AHA! it was all a ploy as Wooster fed Bowser so much junk food that it made him go into hibernation. Wooster is a clever dude. With that problem settled, they take Wooster back to the castle and discover the King is hiding from the Princess since she's pissed at him for fighting with Wooster. It ends with the King running into a broom closet.

There's a one-page gag strip about the King being on a diet, so he has cakes made to look like his crown, which he eats when no one is around.

The Captain N story is a bit more serious as the trio of Captain N, Seamus, and Princess Lana go to the Locker, a hangout for spacehunters. In Seamus's storage space, Lana sees the flame-chip, the reward for kidnapping her father who they're searching for. Surely that means Seamus captured him, right? Captain N isn't convinced, but Lana won't listen and Seamus is pissed at the lack of trust... it results in Lana stealing Captain N's Nintendo gun and going after Seamus. After much fighting, it's revealed that Seamus doesn't know how she got the flame-chip -- she was captured and under mind-control, waking up with it in her hand at the Locker. So, she could have kidnapped the King. The story ends with the flame-chip speaking telepathically to Duke (Captain N's dog) and telling us how Seamus broke free of her captors quickly, grabbed the flame-chip that was just sitting there, and escaped -- so she didn't kidnap the King! Only they don't know that.

Fairly middling, average stuff. The art in the Mario story is annoying since Mario rarely looks the same in two consecutive panels. Also, the strong influence of Super Mario Bros. 2 on the elements of the story doesn't help. (Hey, don't get me wrong, I dig that game... it's just weak compared to the others.)

Two questions:

* Why are the King and Princess human-looking in a kingdom of Mushroom people?

* Why do they shop at Koopamart and use Koopabits as currency?

See you tomorrow.

10 Comments

• At November 13, 2009, Jeremy A. Patterson wrote:

  AOTSMB was a secodary Mario title at the time. That is why there are Captain N stories!

  J.A.P.

• At November 13, 2009, Matt Beahan wrote:

  Not to be too geeky, but it's "Samus", not "Seamus".

  Sorry.

• At November 13, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  I didn't know that -- thanks!

• At November 13, 2009, chad wrote:

  that is proably what they use for money in the mush room kingdom though never read the issue can ...

• At November 13, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  I had a few of these Nintendo comics, though they were dispensed with in one of my collection purges. I ...

• At November 13, 2009, Tekende wrote:

  I'm pretty sure that the Koopas had taken over the Mushroom Kingdom, and the war between the two was really ...

• At November 13, 2009, tk. wrote:

  I think I just had the very first Super Mario comic, which is notable for Mario saying with the awful ...

• At November 13, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  I remember those Mario comics. As ridiculous as they were in a less-than-enjoyable way, you can be charitable and think ...

• At November 14, 2009, Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources wrote:

  [...] November Day 11 -- All-Star Squadron annual #1 Nosalgia November Day 12 -- Transformers #63 Nostalgia November Day 13 ...

• At November 15, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  This is a comic from my childhood too! I remember the Captain N story pretty well. Also, I love the ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Transformers #63 by Simon Furman and Jose Delbo is part two of the five-part "Matrix Quest" that has the Autobots and a group of Decepticons led by Lord Thunderwing searching for the Matrix, which was lost in space at some point. Really, this issue is just a story about three Autobots on an alien planet seemingly rescuing a group of persecuted aliens from death only for it to be revealed later that the seemingly innocent aliens were actually evil. Honestly, there's not much more to this issue. So, a few quick thoughts:

* The aliens they rescue are human-like, bald, and have pointy ears... when their true form is revealed, they have squid faces and giant eyes and look creepy... is it not possible for creepy-looking aliens to be nice and sweet?

* This issue gives me no idea of how Thunderwing is different from any of the other Decepticon leaders.

* They say the Matrix was lost when Optimus Prime's old body was blown up? What happened to Rodimus Prime? Man, they need to take better care of that Matrix.

* Optimus Prime dives into some well in this issue that gives him visions... none of them good news.

* Apparently, it's somehow shameful that these Autobots secretly long for peace and tranquility rather than constant hardship and battle.

* I preferred Delbo's art on the previous issue that I read. His robots often look too short -- their legs not in proportion to the rest of their body. You can see that on the cover with Thunderwing.

Next week, I'll do #64, part three of the "Matrix Quest" as part of "Transformers Thursdays"...

14 Comments

• At November 12, 2009, Ellis Wyatt wrote:

  The Matrix Quest storyline was unique for a rather inspired idea on Furman's part: each part homaged a separate movie ...

• At November 12, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  So... Transformers: The Movie never happened in these stories? But... it was awesome!

  I know the next issue does Moby-Dick, but ...

• At November 12, 2009, Adam wrote:

  It's always confusing when you need to track two separate continuities, in this case, the TV show versus the comic. ...

• At November 12, 2009, Dan Lokhorst wrote:

  They didn't just lose the Matrix when Prime's body was blown up. From the Transformers wiki:

  "Prime's persistence in keeping the ...

• At November 12, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  The Marvel Transformers series did have some significant continuity fudges. Off the top of my head, I think the two ...

• At November 12, 2009, Chris McAree wrote:

  Chad Nevett

  November 12, 2009 at 10:12 am

  "So... Transformers: The Movie never happened in these stories? But... it was awesome!"

  The UK ...

• At November 12, 2009, J-so wrote:

  People to this day don't seem to understand how different the comics universes of GI Joe and Transformers were complared ...

• At November 12, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Yes, I would propose Generation 2 as the best Transformers comic storyline, possibly the best Transformers story of all, period. ...

• At November 12, 2009, chad wrote:

  the matrix quest shows why the transformers comic contuniety and cartoon one is so messed up for one deciding the ...

• At November 12, 2009, rhod wrote:

  Every time an american comics fan mentions Transformers, I feel sorry that for so many years they had to put ...

• At November 12, 2009, Ellis Wyatt wrote:

  Bob Budiansky created the core personalities of the entire franchise, so while his storylines got to be a bit...odd, he ...

• At November 12, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Budiansky had good stories in him. I mean, who doesn't recall the "Return to Cybertron" 2-parter as the "Empire Strikes ...

• At November 13, 2009, Dan Lokhorst wrote:

  I'm with Wraith. Budiansky gave us some great early stories (The space bridge, EVERYTHING SHOCKWAVE) and some wild characterization (notably ...

• At November 14, 2009, Felicity wrote:

  At first I didn’t care who was writing the Transformers comics. As a child I experienced them more directly without ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

All-Star Squadron annual #1 by Roy Thomas, Adrian Gonzales, and Jerry Ordway takes place shortly after the group has come together, so shortly that they barely know one another. The issue has three parts to its story, the first focusing on Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash performing at a circus to sell war bonds. During their performance, they fake like an accident had happened so they could shift from riding a bike together across a tightrope to acrobatics -- this poses a problem when a flash of light screws them up and everyone thinks it's just another put-over. The flash of light reveals a glowing bubble that has the Atom, Wildcat, and an unknown person that we know is the Guardian inside. That trio proceeds to attack the other three heroes, displaying superhuman strength. After a scuffle, the three attackers return to normal and have no idea how they got there.

Going off together, the six ride a magic Green Lantern flying carpet and discuss what happened. In the process, Wildcat, the Atom, and the Guardian all tell their origins, converging on two points: being sucked up into a glowing sphere before waking up at the circus, and they were all trained to fight by someone -- who turns out to be the same man. With this knowledge, they all split up into pairs and go hunting for the man. Each pair finds him, except his glowing a different colour and is all superpowered-up. In each case, the man he taught to fight knocks him out, though. When they bring the unconscious 'triplets' together, they merge into one big glowing angry guy who calls himself Evil. The trainer eventually regains control and tells how he was sucked up into the glowing ball after being bitter that the third man he trained (and hoped would make him rich) abandoned him. The ball hates Green Lantern for whatever reason and used the former students now heroes to try and kill GL. But, it's defeated now, so everyone be happy?

On the final page, we learn that the glowing ball is some evil force that was sent to that universe by the Guardians of Oa, who previously expelled some magical energy to that same universe knowing that it would eventually power this Green Lantern's power battery or something. So, really, the problem started with the Guardians of Oa... it's always those little blue bastards, isn't it?

Not a bad issue, more an excuse to give readers the origins of Wildcat, Atom, and Guardian than anything else. I mean, the villain is very lame. The issue is interesting for one big reason: Roy Thomas does something that's quite common now by taking three different, distinct origins, and tying them together based on a point of similarity. I imagine that before this issue the three heroes weren't trained to fight by the same man, but now they were. Instant connection created as Golden Age characters are retroactively tied together to help strengthen that 'shared universe' aspect of the comic. Not only that, but Thomas also connects the Earth-2 Green Lantern to the Green Lanterns of Earth-1. Common techniques/choices today, but not so much then.

Really, though, this is a bland comic. Not bad, but not great either. I probably enjoy it more now than I did when I read it as a kid -- I recall finding is VERY boring then. Now, I can appreciate what Thomas and company were going for even if it's not that exciting.

9 Comments

• At November 11, 2009, Namor wrote:

  I remember reading this one when I was a kid: http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd210/captainatom/All-Star_Squadron_31.jpg

  I had no idea what the hell was going on, ...

• At November 11, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  A funny thing about this issue is the page where they go out of their way to explain where every ...

• At November 11, 2009, John Tumbull wrote:

  I thought it was a fun issue when I was a kid, and still do today. Gorgeous art by ...

• At November 11, 2009, Daniel O' Dreams wrote:

  Yeah for an Annual this one was pretty dull.

  Was this the first time the Alan Scott's power is the ...

• At November 11, 2009, Mike Blake wrote:

  I think it was earlier than this that they introduced the retcon where the meteor used to make Alan Scott's ...

• At November 11, 2009, Ted wrote:

  A funny thing about this issue is the page where they go out of their way to explain where every ...

• At November 11, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  It was indeed in an issue of Green Lantern (from the 70's) that it was revealed The Green Flame Of ...

• At November 12, 2009, Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources wrote:

  [...] #148 Nostalgia November Day 09 -- What The--?! #16 Nostalgia November Day 10 -- Primortals #1 Nostalgia November Day ...

• At November 12, 2009, Clint Adams wrote:

  This Annual had nothing over All-Star Squadron Annual 2. That being said, if there is a series that cries ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Primortals #1 by Kate Worley and Scot Eaton is actually officially titled "Leonard Nemoy's Primortals," because someone thought it was a good idea to base a comic series in an idea by Nemoy. That person: so fucking wrong. So so so so wrong. Oh, that person was Isaac Asimov? Well, he was wrong. As this issue proves.

I hesitate to sum it up this way, but imagine if Transformers wasn't about cool transforming robots and was, instead, about humanoid animals evolved from creatures taken from Earth prior to that meteor that killed the dinosaurs. Now, imagine that Optimus Prime was a pacifist that did everything to avoid violence? And that the humans, instead of being mechanics, were the people at SETI, searching for proof of extraterrestrial life. And imagine all of the cool parts of Transformers were also muted under horrible dialogue and scenes that lack any sense of drama, clearly acting as means to move characters from one point to another.

Far be it for me to jump on a character for choosing peace, but, I bought this comic in 1995 because Primaster looks badass on that cover. Instead, he's a whiny leader afraid that someone will get a papercut, which results in the bad guys escaping and taking hostages -- the head bad guy heading towards Earth. Optimus Prime wouldn't have put up with that shit. You've all seen Transformers: The Movie, right? Optimus Prime is hardcore -- he is a Decepticon-killing machine (no pun intended). This comic was such a disappointment as a kid. A cool-looking character that just stands around and does nothing. And also says nothing of any consequence. There's no show or tell, it's all... I don't know what it is when neither of those two things exist.

I never bought another Tekno book again. I don't regret that.

20 Comments

• At November 10, 2009, Adam Kirby wrote:

  At one point, I inherited every single comic put out my Tekno and whatever they put out when they changed ...

• At November 10, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Oh, they were the Mike Danger guys? I liked that one.

• At November 10, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  I'll admit, I liked the design of Mr. Hero... that was one cool-looking robot.

• At November 10, 2009, Adam Kirby wrote:

  I also remember them running house ads for forever for a From Dusk Til Dawn comic that as far as ...

• At November 10, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Teknophage's first storyline was one of the first stories I ever read where the protagonist lost and died at the ...

• At November 10, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  That is a considerable handicap.

• At November 10, 2009, Adam Kirby wrote:

  That's just a rumor though. He might have Pac'd it.

• At November 11, 2009, Bud Scape wrote:

  Sounds pretty cool to me.

• At November 11, 2009, MCF wrote:

  Actually Tekno did publish an adaptation of From Dusk Till Dawn in the form of a $5.95 prestige format one-shot. ...

• At November 11, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  The Teckno imprint didn't last too long either.

  AND Nemoy is spelled NIMOY unless you were delibrately insulting him.

• At November 11, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Nope, that's just a case of me being stupid.

• At November 11, 2009, Strider wrote:

  But...but....some of the aliens are anthropomorphic ferrets. FERRETS!

• At November 11, 2009, Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources wrote:

  [...] #75 Nostalgia November Day 08 -- Marvel Team-Up #148 Nostalgia November Day 09 -- What The--?! #16 Nostalgia November ...

• At November 11, 2009, Casey wrote:

  I still have a bag full of Tekno swag from the San Diego Comic Con way back when. Anyone want ...

• At November 11, 2009, Greg McElhatton wrote:

  James Vance has been telling his memories of writing books for Tekno and what a nightmare experience it was. I ...

• At November 11, 2009, Adam Kirby wrote:

  "Actually Tekno did publish an adaptation of From Dusk Till Dawn in the form of a $5.95 prestige format one-shot."

  Then ...

• At November 11, 2009, danjack wrote:

  Chad, it sounds like you are saying that the Transformers movie was actually, ya know, Good or sumfin'.

  As we all ...

• At November 11, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  I was speaking of the animated one, which was offically titled Transformers: The Movie -- the live action one was ...

• At November 11, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I cried in the cinema when I saw that film.

• At November 11, 2009, jackdaw53 wrote:

  I actually read all the Teknophage and Mr Hero comics and thought they were (at least) very good. From memory ...

Random Thought! Last week's High Road/Low Road where Sat and I discuss Hulk Hogan signing with TNA.

Random Thought! While I contributed a list of my top ten storylines in comics to Brian, I won't publish it until the results of the whole thing are in.

Random Thought! Wow, after Nightwing, Scott McDaniel's art suffered horribly. What happened? (At this point, someone points out that he had some sort of accident that affected his hand/arm and I look like an asshole, right?)

Random Thought! My favourite Bob Dylan song is the version of "I Don't Believe You (She Acts like We Never have Met)" off Biograph. Listen to it and then listen to the original off Another Side of Bob Dylan if you want to have Dylan going electric being a good thing spelled out for you. Honestly, I've listened to this song more times than I can count. It's worth getting Biograph just for that one song. Seriously. My favourite part of the song is when Dylan sings "Oh how her skirt it swayed as the guitar played" and then -- THEN! -- we hear the guitar play a few notes that we never hear at any other part of the song. Fantastic. (What's weirder -- and, here, I get slightly personal -- is that this has been one of my favourite songs for years, ever since I got Biograph back in... I want to say 2003... and I actually had a situation similar to the one described in the song happen to me a bit over a year-and-a-half ago. Not exactly the same, but similar enough to give the song that bit of personal meaning that it was lacking...)

Random Thought! Not paying attention to the sales charts is hard when all of the sites you read do stories on them. The key: not caring. That fixes everything.

Random Thought! Someone mentioned this somewhere, but here it is... Why Warren Ellis's Stormwatch and The Authority are One Big Story and Count as a Single Run: Stormwatch vol. 1 #37-50 comprise the first act where stories are all self-contained, building to "Change or Die," a three-part story wherein the idea of superheroes doing more than fighting bad guys to make the world better is the central concept and things change. Stormwatch vol. 2 #1-11 (plus WildC.A.T.S./Aliens) has the group attempt to continue on after "Change or Die," but told in three-issue stories that get progressively bigger in scope and moral ambiguity, culminating in the destruction of the team just as it wrestles with its mandate. The Authority #1-12 has the three outsider members of Stormwatch introduced when Ellis took over (save Swift, though she was altered considerably) form their own group, coming out of the shadows to replace Stormwatch and operate on the scale that they were afraid to. The Authority happened because of story and storytelling changes that evolved over the course of Stormwatch... and, you know, featured the same creative team as the previous volume. It's clearly a straight line.

Random Thought! While I had my doubts about bringing the Kingpin into the MAX Punisher series, the first issue of Punishermax (stupid stupid stupid stupid title) is pretty good. Though, it's a crime that Steve Dillon never illustrated the MAX series while Ennis was writing.

Random Thought! In a short review of New Avengers #58 on my blog, I raised the issue of superheroes killing and that's spurred some responses -- most notably at 4thletter (one, two, and three).

Random Thought! If you missed them the first time, check out the Grant Morrison/Gene Ha Authority issues tomorrow via The Authority: The Lost Year Reader. I love that first issue.

Random Thought! I hate ironing shirts.

Random Thought! Nostalgia November is late today because of real life stuff. But, it will be on Primortals #1. Oh, sorry... Leonard Nimoy's Primortals #1.

Random Thought! Sleeps is for the weak.

Random Thought! For some reason, I'm sticking with Greek Street despite its utter lack of creating a strong story that engages you. Seriously, what is that book about beyond a vague idea of redoing Greek stories?

Random Thought! Ah, that's it.

41 Comments

• At November 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Please tell me that you have Live 1966!

  It kicks "I Don't Believe You" up a whole other notch.

• At November 10, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  I do not. But, I know it's on that album, so I've been meaning to get it for a while.

• At November 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  He even introduces it with the amazingly cool line, "This is called 'I Don't Believe You,' it used to be ...

• At November 10, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  I'm sure you know this, but Ellis himself talks about the three story arcs being part of a whole in ...

• At November 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It's interesting, Chad, apparently I'm a bit mistaken - I was confusing the Biograph one with the live versions from ...

• At November 10, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  It's clearly a straight line.

  No, looking back it seems like one, but it wasn't.

  The second volume of StormWatch starts out ...

• At November 10, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  While you guys are going on about Dylan, can one of you answer a question?

  I recently got the 2nd and ...

• At November 10, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  Chad, to follow-up on your comments; I forgot that Norman was appointed and not elected, but he's still in a ...

• At November 10, 2009, Web Behrens wrote:

  Chad, your thoughts about murder and capital punishment as expressed in your blog were provocative and glib. Esther's keen, well-thought-out ...

• At November 10, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  In the heat of the Sinestro Corps War, GL rings were suddenly permitted to use lethal force, a capability they'd ...

• At November 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I recently got the 2nd and 3rd disc of the "Bootleg series" (I've had the 1rst disc for about 15 ...

• At November 10, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  "I'm Not There," a really good song that inspired a recent movie ABOUT Dylan

  Did it inspire the film or just ...

• At November 10, 2009, aboynamedposh wrote:

  Always preferred the Biograph version to the Live 1966 one. Robbie's guitarwork on the Biograph take is just... wow.

• At November 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Did it inspire the film or just the title?

  Yeah, fair enough, the latter.

  That's still impressive for a song that was ...

• At November 10, 2009, sgt pepper wrote:

  How about that Blowin' in the Wind, huh? Pretty good tune.

• At November 10, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  I've always thought Scott McDaniels's art sucked - all flash (Hey look, a fisheye lens shot! Hey look,depicting motion by ...

• At November 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  On a more positive note, I'm very fond of the version of "I Don't Believe You" on Another Side, so ...

• At November 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  How about that Blowin' in the Wind, huh? Pretty good tune.

  Most definitely!

• At November 10, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  Now that I think of it, the first time I remember hearing "I Don't Believe You" was the electric version ...

• At November 10, 2009, Dan Felty wrote:

  "Santa Fe" as recorded initially is on The Genuine Basement Tapes Volume 3. The sound quality is atrocious, but ...

• At November 10, 2009, Dan Felty wrote:

  "Now that I think of it, the first time I remember hearing "I Don't Believe You" was the electric version ...

• At November 10, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Brian, Chad, et al: Have any of you heard any of the Rolling Thunder Revue concerts, from 1976? I downloaded ...

• At November 10, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  @Dan Felty: I do have the Last Waltz soundtrack, with the reprise. I haven't listened to it for quite a ...

• At November 10, 2009, s1rude wrote:

  Why are you guys talking about Dylan!?!?!? This is a comics blog! Leave that low brow shit to ...

• At November 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Brian, Chad, et al: Have any of you heard any of the Rolling Thunder Revue concerts, from 1976? I downloaded ...

• At November 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Less laid back. It's probably a bit more 'Planet-Wavesy'.

  I'd say that's quite accurate.

  The 1966 ones are, as I mentioned before, ...

• At November 10, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  That's still impressive for a song that was never officially released until the soundtrack of the film whose title it ...

• At November 10, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  On killing: I don't necessarily want Osborn killed since it would lead to certain problems -- my issue was with ...

• At November 10, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  Thanks for the info Brian, I knew you'd have an answer. I'll have to seek out the Basement Tapes. I'm ...

• At November 10, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I just now read your blog (and by coincidence I just got New Avengers #58 earlier today). My gut ...

• At November 11, 2009, Nick Evans wrote:

  Presumably Hawkeye's quite relaxed about killing Osborn because he's died himself, and expects that Norman will get better soon afterwards.

• At November 11, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  >>FGJ - I've only watched Velvet Goldmine once (and that was at least 10 years ago), but I really hated ...

• At November 11, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  " On killing: I don't necessarily want Osborn killed since it would lead to certain problems -- my issue was ...

• At November 11, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Spider-Man is completely representative of the standard simplistic morality of superhero comics, particularly in New Avengers where he freaks out ...

• At November 11, 2009, Brud Lee wrote:

  "Visions of Johanna" off Biograph is crazy good as well.

• At November 11, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I hear that Far From Heaven and I'm Not There are really good though.

  Both are pretty amazing.

  They both walk a ...

• At November 11, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Considering that Norman died once fighting Spider-Man and simply came back worse -- so much worse that he got where ...

• At November 11, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Yes!! You're absolutely right! I wish I'd said that.

  And there was no super-hypocrisy in that statement as far ...

• At November 11, 2009, Ted wrote:

  Perhaps, Omar, but it's one thing to hesitate in the moment, and it's another to hold that opinion when it ...

• At November 12, 2009, Dan Felty wrote:

  I gave the wrong song--Baby, Let Me Follow You Down was the one given a reprise. I got mixed-up ...

• At November 12, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  Dan Bailey, I'm curious about your experiences with Punk.

  I'm a Southerner (Birmingham, AL) as well, I was too young to ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

What The--?! #16 is the Christmas/Halloween issue of this parody/satire/humour comic that I've never found to be all that funny. But, hey, I'm older, wiser, my sense of humour has changed over the years and...

Yeah, still not funny.

That doesn't mean that there aren't parts of this comic that aren't enjoyable, though. There are four stories here, each of them with at least one moment that's entertaining.

The first is a Christmas story meant to mimic "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and involves Doctor Octopus taking over Santa's workshop and Ant-Man (Scott Lang) having to stop him. The story has some nice gags and wordplay, but really doesn't rise above the level of mediocre. I do like when Ant-Man tries to summon ants to help him and we get a panel of the arctic tundra as he remembers that, yeah, no ants at the North Pole. Or, when he shrinks Doctor Octopus as if that will make it easier to beat him only to realise that it doesn't help. It's an entertaining story that's more about the craft than the content.

The second stars... Cookies? A giant muscle-bound hero who's made out of cookie. It centres around Hanukkah and someone stealing it. The culprit turns out to be a little boy named Myron whose parents only ever give him socks for Hanukkah and it's driven him crazy. The strip ends with his parents giving him a toy, which makes him realise that none of it matters... and we see that the 'toy' is actually the Sockmaster 2000. Oh, and Cookies's sidekick? A woman named Milk. Oh ho ho.

The third strip has Uatu babysitting another Watcher's kid, Lavnic in a Calvin and Hobbes homage/tribute/rip-off. If you ever wanted to see a strip featuring a bald Calvin and a bald Calvin's dad... It's not too bad as we get a Spaceman Spiff, a panel where Calvin Lavnic is a giant god-like creature looking down on a metropolitan area, and he even rides a sabretooth tiger. Until Uatu has enough and gets the Inhumans to babysit instead.

The fourth strip is a part Halloween, part Christmas strip as Forbush Man goes to a haunted house for candy, but, to get it, he must spend the night there. During the night, he's visited by three spirits: the Ghost of Deadlines Past (aka Tom DeFalco), the Specter of Cancellation, and the Spirit of the Comics Code Authority. Ultimately, he's put on trial for having sexy women and such in his comic when the CCA looks down on such things. Inoffensive but not quite funny humour. I do like the bit where Forbush Man chooses Alan Moore and Art Adams as his comic's creative team and he's told that that's a mistake because they won't keep to the schedule. Gotta love those pre-Image days when Art Adams was the 'artist who's always late' go-to guy.

There are also two one-page strips, one showing us what certain heroes got for Christmas (Medusa got a shower cap) and one that has one-panel gags with monsters... like the Alien from Aliens getting braces... on both sets of teeth!

Not bad, but not funny... so, yeah, actually, kinda bad.

21 Comments

• At November 9, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Yeah, I think it's a pretty rare thing for a company to produce effective satire of itself. The best example ...

• At November 9, 2009, Casey wrote:

  The existence of books like "What The...?!" and "What If...?" is amazing when you think about how robust the comic ...

• At November 9, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  I wish I had some old issues of What If...? in this box since I loved that series. Ah, maybe ...

• At November 9, 2009, TimCallahan wrote:

  I always thought What The--?! relied on too many "jokes" and and not enough visual humor. The pages were too ...

• At November 9, 2009, Jeremy A. Patteron wrote:

  I owned that issue! I bought it from Comics Are Us in Festus, Missouri, when it first came out!

  ...

• At November 9, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  I never read any of What The--? but I always wanted to. Maybe I don't, anymore.

  You're really pulling some obscure ...

• At November 9, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  No "What If...?" Bummer. The second series coughed up a lot of mediocrity, but it ran and ran; nearly 10 ...

• At November 9, 2009, Ian wrote:

  Three times I read that as "Comics Are Us in Fetuses" Jeremy.

  Messed with my mind. Also, funnier than anything ...

• At November 9, 2009, Apodaca wrote:

  I think the problem is that middle-aged men aren't usually very funny. Too punny and soft.

• At November 9, 2009, chad wrote:

  i remember the issue and how i found it nuts that any one in the mu. would actully let uatu ...

• At November 9, 2009, Monica Dickey wrote:

  What ifs and What The's are fun, although I've only seen a couple of What The's.

  Sometimes you just have to ...

• At November 9, 2009, googum wrote:

  The early issues of What The--?! were better, but every so often a bit works. I was just breaking ...

• At November 9, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  It's got a nice cover though.

• At November 9, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Shouldn't Milk and Cookies have been in a Christmas story instead? I can see them fighting Santa Claus- to avoid ...

• At November 9, 2009, Doug Atkinson wrote:

  IIRC Milk and Cookies had appeared earlier as a parody of Cloak & Dagger. (I think it might have ...

• At November 9, 2009, Mike Blake wrote:

  I remember trying some early issues and preferring the earlier NOT BRAND ECHH!

  By the way:

  "Gotta love those pre-Image days ...

• At November 10, 2009, Nick wrote:

  What the had some truly hilarious issues.

  This one wasn't one of them. Not at all. I remember reading it and ...

• At November 10, 2009, Aaron Thall wrote:

  Ugh, I always hated this comic book. If the art wasn't ugly, the stories were awful. Sometimes they were both ...

• At November 10, 2009, buttler wrote:

  Oh yeah, I picked this series up back when I was the target age, and it wasn't particularly funny.

  Unlike the ...

• At November 10, 2009, Jeremy A. Patteron wrote:

  The previous issue had Wolverina team up with... a white-haired chick named Ivory! Plus a TMNT spoof!

  M&C debuted ...

• At November 10, 2009, Thenodrin wrote:

  The problem with What The is that it should never have been an ongoing series. It should have been an ...

World Without a Superman comprises the eight-part "Funeral for a Friend" story along with two short stories and The Adventures of Superman #500, which acted as a finale to this story and the beginning of the next story, Reign of the Supermen (and was also Jerry Ordway's last issue as writer of the series). I remember these comics as being better than they actually are. I didn't read this story until a few years ago when I got this and the Reign of the Supermen trades finally and I enjoyed this one quite a bit -- but I think that's mostly in comparison to The Death of Superman. World Without a Superman tries to be meaningful and heartfelt, and it is... but it also suffers of its time, of the over-extended Superman cast and the idea that every superhero knows one another and is friends. It's also horribly callous at time in ways that don't seem real, while also mocks itself and the way that the entire death story was handled. Mostly, it fails, because it wants to make Superman's death as big and impactful as something like Kennedy getting shot, but doesn't deliver that sort of reaction in the pages of the book ever.

It's always easier for me to focus on the negatives of something, that's just how I am. In many ways, it's easier to discuss and pick out negatives than highlight positives. The reasons behind failure stand out better than the reasons behind success -- for me anyway. The biggest failure of World Without a Superman, though, is that it didn't grab me emotionally. It was too busy, too concerned with the smaller character, too concerned with showing everyone's reaction, filtering it through their unique perspective and problems to the point where I didn't care. I don't care about Bibbo or Gangbuster or the Cadmus Project or the other half-dozen characters that were transient and we all kind of half-remember. The elements that date this story suck the emotion out of it.

The serial nature of the story hurts it. An event this big would stop the lives of people for weeks, months... it would be all they thought about, all they talked about -- or so we're to believe. But, the need to come up with new drama to move the story forward. Superman dies, there's drama over who gets the body, the body is buried, someone steals the body, there's drama over the stolen body, the body gets taken back, the story ends with sightings of various Superman-like people, and the body is gone. The actual death of Superman and what it means isn't given enough attention or weight. They try, they really do, but... it's a hard thing to do well, to really nail, and the storytelling style of these creators, of DC at the time, wasn't geared toward something as truly emotional and crushing as this would be. Heightened emotions work most of the time in superhero comics, but not for something this big -- that requires you to pull back, to become less wordy, less obvious, mostly because people wouldn't know what to say or think. There would be a lot more standing around, no one saying anything... but the storytelling style requires that we know everything every character is saying or feeling. It's all told to us, very rarely do we just see it happen.

As I said, the context of the story hurts it. Something as big as the death of Superman should exist outside of continuity in many ways. It shouldn't be tied down to shapeshifting alien Supergirl who's dating the clone of Lex Luthor who's posing as his Australian son or Ron Troupe or Guy Gardner, Warrior or Bibbo or Gangbuster or a specific iteration of the Justice League featuing the d-squad. It's an odd criticism and one that I can't really blame the creators for since they were writing a story within a specific context -- what else were they supposed to do? But, at the same time, this story is about the people surrounding Superman and I don't care about 90% of them.

The dispute over Superman's body is somewhat lame/uninteresting. It fails prey to a lot of the stupid superhero story failing -- characters that we know are important but no one in the world would actually respect/allow to do anything suddenly accompany the police and other officials on adventures. Lois Lane, plucky reporter lady is fun and all... but, seriously, they would have her thrown in jail for the shit she pulls.

But, at the same time, there's an odd cynicism about this story. The number of times people utter phrases like "I know her fiance is missing and all, but does she have to be such a bummer?" is staggering. At the funeral of Superman, someone is selling a bag filled with the copy of The Daily Planet with Superman's death as the lead story and a black armband... and Bibbo nearly takes his head off for trying to capitalise on Superman's death. I liked that little jab at DC.

There's an issue where the Justice League read Superman's mail like he used to and it leads to them fixing the house of a family that were ruined because of Doomsday. That's fine, but we also get one part where Wonder Woman tracks down on the dad/husband who left them a few months prior... and it's an oddly conflicting scene. You always want superheroes to get involved, to solve real problems like this, to go to assholes who abandon their families and make them take responsibility -- but, at the same time, it's horribly simplistic and arrogant of her to just walk into their lives and tell him what he should do. What if he and his wife absolutely hate one another? Yeah, he left, but people get divorced all of the time -- is Wonder Woman going to show up every time a couple breaks up?

Don't get me wrong, I liked this book. But, it has a lot of glaring problems that make it a tough read to get through. By the end, I was skimming various scenes simply because, as I've said numerous times, I don't care about Gangbuster or Project Cadmus...

Honestly, rereading this after the death of Steve Rogers and how that was handled... that's how this should have been written.

22 Comments

• At November 9, 2009, Jacob T. Levy wrote:

  If these stories don't make you care about Bibbo, you have no soul. ;-)

• At November 9, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Say, what happened to Bibbo, anyway? PLEASE tell me he's not a Black Lantern... :(

• At November 9, 2009, Kris Bather wrote:

  Nice, honest criticism Chad. You're right in that compared to DoS, this was a winner, but it is a product ...

• At November 9, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  I find this criticism to be a bit harsh, because, well, the story is enjoyable enough if you happen to ...

• At November 9, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Back in the day, I was hoping (against all hope) that it would be "Life without Superman".

  Dammit, it didn't work!

• At November 9, 2009, garbonzo wrote:

  Isn't the death of Captain America basically following this same pattern?

  The character dies. There is a lot of reaction. ...

• At November 9, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  garbonzo -- There's a feeling of shock to Cap's death that isn't captured here. A sense of scope, that it ...

• At November 9, 2009, Adam wrote:

  I think the conflict here is the fact that a specific era of Superman has come and gone, making it ...

• At November 9, 2009, Ninjazilla wrote:

  Wow Adam you nailed it.

• At November 9, 2009, Freakshow wrote:

  Bibbo was last seen a few months ago in Superman . He was the bartender in the bar ...

• At November 9, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Chad might hate most of these folks, but I love 'em. I really, really miss the expansive, awesome supporting cast ...

• At November 9, 2009, Dr. Chaos wrote:

  How did Bruce/Batman grieve/react to all this?

  Never really been all that interested in actually reading the Death of Superman (although ...

• At November 9, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  Part of the reason I didn't enjoy the Superman books very much back then - and part of the reason ...

• At November 9, 2009, DBrownMan wrote:

  The death of Superman in itself was a fun read that plotholes that you could drive a freight train through... ...

• At November 9, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Honestly, rereading this after the death of Steve Rogers and how that was handled... that's how this should have been ...

• At November 9, 2009, Zor-El of Argo wrote:

  Dr. Chaos:

  Bruce was way too distracted by the Bane storyline at the time. His back hadn't been broken yet, but ...

• At November 10, 2009, J-so wrote:

  Ha! You mean Jean-Paul, not captain Picard.

• At November 10, 2009, Zor-El of Argo wrote:

  Mybad

• At November 11, 2009, A.J. wrote:

  Picard as Batman would've made "Knightfall" waaaay more awesome.

• At November 12, 2009, Kendall wrote:

  "World Without Superman tries to be meaningful and heartfelt ,and it is...but" "Don't get me wrong, I liked this book. ...

• At November 12, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Honestly, I can't say why I liked it. I admire the ambition of the story, that they really tried to ...

• At November 15, 2009, Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources wrote:

  [...] #23 Nostalgia November Day 15 -- X-Factor annual #4 The Reread Reviews -- The Death of Superman The Reread ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Marvel Team-Up #148 by Cary Burkett and Greg LaRocque has Spider-Man team up with Thor to take on the recurring menace of the Black Abbott. I guess in the previous issue, Spider-Man and the Human Torch had defeated him and, now, he's in the hospital having lost an arm. Spider-Man wants to interrogate him, but, when he does, someone attacks the hospital, trying to get the Black Abbott. Nearby, working his construction job as Sigurd Jarlson, Thor shows up to provide some help. Good thing he does, because he stops the attack and vouches for Spider-Man to the cops. They then learn that the Black Abbott is not the Black Abbott, but one of his disciples, mentally controlled until his injury last issue freed him from said control. He was a member of some order where they tried to train themselves to use the full potential of their brains (based on the fallacy that most people only used 5% of their brain at any one time, so tapping into the other 95% would make you superior -- when, in reality, it would just mean that every single one of your muscles would be tensed, making you unable to move). One of the members of the order learned that he could control the others, so he took over and uses the other 12 as his pawns. You could tell it would happen, because everyone else had black robes, but this guy? Red robe. So obvious.

Anyway, the whole thing progresses to the Black Abbott and his people kidnapping Thor, trying to syphon his energy. Spider-Man goes after him and gets shown the way by a little kid that discovered the tunnels to the base on a beach at the beginning of the issue after getting his ass kicked for trying to be Nomad... Spider-Man sends the kid to get the Avengers and Fantastic Four, telling him secret knowledge to prove he's legit -- only the kid mixes up his facts and neither group believes him. But, Spider-Man and Thor do okay for themselves... except the Black Abbott escapes.

This is a fairly benign comic. A lot of unneeded exposition, a not-too-thrilling plot... but it's not that bad either. I do like this Tony kid who sucks at everything. The first page really has him trying to stop other kids from vandalising property in a makeshift Nomad costume... so they beat him up. Then, he does help Spider-Man but can't keep his facts straight, leaving Spider-Man and Thor without any backup. The kid does, like, one thing right by accidentally falling through some rusted metal while walking on the beach.

The art is better than the writing -- barely. Most of it is very typical, mediocre, basic art, but the odd panel stands out. The look of fear in Tony's eyes as the kids rip off his mask... Thor chucking his hammer at the bad guys... the evil look in a nurse's eyes as she does unseen things to the supposed Black Abbott... okay, three panels that stand out.

Two issues later, Marvel Team-Up was cancelled in favour of The Web of Spider-Man and you can see why: it's a very unremarkable comic series at this point. But, it's also a fun, high action, high adventure sort of book. Though, let's be honest, the cover scene does happen in the story, but it's not nearly as cool there... if you can't do Thor chucking him hammer while Spider-Man hangs on for dear life right...

20 Comments

• At November 8, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  If only the Black Abbott were actually an evil member of the Friars' Club....

• At November 8, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  This has always been one of my favorite Spiderman (and Thor) covers

• At November 8, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  I almost bought this once, just for the cover... but then I didn't.

  That is my story.

• At November 8, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  The cover is better than the comic... except for that first page where Tony dressed as Nomad gets beaten up. ...

• At November 8, 2009, Philip Ayres wrote:

  At least MTU had a distinct identity and purpose (Spiderman meets other super heroes) Web of was just more ...

• At November 8, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Everyone loves Marvel Team-Up. I suppose it should be surprising, then, that two 90s revivals, plus a "Marvel Age" version ...

• At November 8, 2009, rwe1138 wrote:

  I freakin' love that cover.

• At November 8, 2009, Iron Maiden wrote:

  I suppose the current Marvel Superhero Adventures is sort of a team up book now that Marvel doesn't do ...

• At November 8, 2009, MCGroupy wrote:

  Let's hope that Deadpool Team-up will last 150 issues,and not get cancelled at issue #750!

• At November 8, 2009, Ben Herman wrote:

  Has anyone ever brought back the Black Abbott? I remember this issue, mostly because it was the conculsion of ...

• At November 8, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Not only has no one brought back the Black Abbott, he was reported killed by the Scourge of the Underworld ...

• At November 8, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  But did Scourge really kill the Black Abbot, or just one of them?

  In the interest of nitpicky accuracy, it should ...

• At November 8, 2009, chad wrote:

  never cared for the black abbot for sounds like a bad comedian like the black racer. and never ever cared ...

• At November 8, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  The Black Abbot was not a bad comedian. It's true that the Black Costello had all the funniest lines, ...

• At November 8, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  HEY-ohhhhhhh! :-) Nice one, Mary.

• At November 8, 2009, Michael wrote:

  That is an awesome cover.

• At November 8, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  I have this comic. I loved MTU and bought every issue I could get my hands on. Though I must ...

• At November 8, 2009, MarkAndrew wrote:

  Yeah, I've read this (and every!) issue of Marvel team-up at least fo'five times, but damned if I could tell ...

• At November 8, 2009, Lt. Clutch wrote:

  What I remember best about this story is the "sorry, Charlie" in-joke after a couple of the Abbott's goons get ...

• At November 9, 2009, Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources wrote:

  [...] #57 Nostalgia November Day 06 -- TaleSpin #7 Nostalgia November Day 07 -- Excalibur #75 Nostalgia November Day 08 ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Excalibur #75 by Scott Lobdell and Ken Lashley was released either the same month as X-Men #30, the issue where Scott and Jean got married, or the month after and it begins with Rachel Summers insanely happy, because her parents are finally married, meaning there's a good chance that she will be born. Of course, this being a comic book, her being happy means everything is about to go horribly, horribly wrong. And it does. Apparently Captain Britain has been missing for a few months -- now, he's coming back and he wants Rachel's body. She tries to deny it, but the team finds out and Kitty takes her back in her memories to her time as a hellhound and Rachel decides to sacrifice herself and... oh, it's just not good, people. The whole thing culminates in Rachel swapping places with Brian, but, at the end of the issue, it's revealed that it's not Brian at all... technically. Sure, it looks like him, but he's wearing a different costume and has crazy eyes and wants to be called Britanic! Talk about twisting the knife! Rachel sacrifices herself on the happiest day of her life and it doesn't work the way it was supposed to! Goddamn, man.

Since this was issue 75, it's double-sized and the story doesn't really go anywhere after the premise is introduced. I do love how Rachel not wanting to give up her body is portrayed as a bad thing initially -- like she's being selfish. Like she should sacrifice her existence for Brian. I hate superhero comic morality. It's one thing to sacrifice yourself in the middle of a fight, acting on pure instinct. It's a whole other thing when someone tries to take over your body and it's suggested that you should willingly give it up, because that's the right thing to do. No, it's not. Brian Braddock and his wife Meggan? Total assholes here. And, what's weird, is that when they finally try and rescue Brian, he doesn't want Rachel to sacrifice herself for him! What the fuck, dude? Forcing yourself on her and trying to take her place without consent is okay, but when she's willingly saying 'Here, take my place in this reality,' you suddenly want to play the big man and say that that's okay, you're fine, that would be wrong? Seriously, what a douchebag.

The scene where Kitty and Rachel travel into her memories is rather lame. For those unaware, Rachel is the daughter of Scott and Jean from the "Days of Future Past" story. As a young adult, she was a hellhound, a mutant used to hunt down other mutants. Her keeper, Ahab would execute mutants and, during that time, leave the door wide open, daring his mutant slaves to try and escape. So, Kitty is all "Let's go see what's through that door!" as if it holds strong meaning... because, I must ask, if Rachel never went through that door, how would she know? And, if she doesn't know, wouldn't there be nothing when they tried to walk through given that the entire environment is recreated from her memories? (Also, while I'm on the subject, how come, whenever we go into someone's memories like this, they can see themselves? How do they know what they looked like at the time really? Shouldn't they be sort of vague, not totally complete blurs?)

Really, the only thing I found kind of cool in this issue is the moment whe they're trying to rescue Brian and, in the timestream, they see visions of various mutants and the narrator of the issue, Rory Campbell, sees a vision of himself -- and it's Ahab! This guy is the asshole who imprisoned and used Rachel in the future! (Did that revelation ever get a pay off, by the way? Reading the Wikipedia entry, I see that it did... in a horribly lame way.)

Lashley's art isn't too bad. It's a little stilted and overly posed/polished at times -- and less detailed at others. But, overall, it tells the story and doesn't get in the way, even delivers a few rather nice panels.

There's also a really, really, really bad back-up strip by Jim Krueger and Tim Sale. Gorgeous Sale art, horribly written Krueger story about Nightcrawler feeling sorry for himself that ends with him realising that the X symbol, when rotated 45 degrees... is a cross. Oh yeah. Because he's religious. So, it's like a sign or something. Like Jesus loves mutants. Take that, you bigots!

I got this comic when I was 11 because it seemed big and important. 15 years later, did it actually have any impact on anything going on still? No, really. Did it? Because I sure hope not.

Tomorrow, you get a double dose of Nostalgia November as I dive back into the box and also do a reread review of World Without a Superman.

39 Comments

• At November 7, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  Man, I totally remember this crappy comic after reading you thoughts on it. It was bad. But then again, pretty ...

• At November 7, 2009, Seth wrote:

  Impacts on stuff going on today (plus some "important" later stories:

  1) Rachel ends up 2000 years in the future ...

• At November 7, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Peeeee-yew, that one sounds like a stinker alright. But, hey, is that some sort of shiny chromium background on the ...

• At November 7, 2009, Andy wrote:

  The most painful thing about this issue is that IIRC it was the first issue following Alan Davis's fantastic run. ...

• At November 7, 2009, M Bloom wrote:

  Man, I hated this issue so much. Took one of my favorite Marvel characters and wrote her off into limbo ...

• At November 7, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  My copy, for the record, is the regular cover... though, I think that's because my dad didn't want to spend ...

• At November 7, 2009, Greg McElhatton wrote:

  Andy -- Actually, it was a few issues later. Davis's last was #67; #68-70 were a horrible three-parter that wrote ...

• At November 7, 2009, Narrim wrote:

  Oh man, I miss Cerise, Kylun, and Feron. They were all-new, all-different and interesting! It sucked how they left. Not ...

• At November 7, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  The last time I read Excalibur was the Alan Davis run where he wrote and drew the the book. ...

• At November 7, 2009, Adam wrote:

  The lesson here is that characters from alternate futures NEVER have happy outcomes. Rachel, Bishop, the Legion of Super ...

• At November 7, 2009, sgt rawk wrote:

  Please. Read some comics from MY childhood instead.

• At November 7, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Issues 42-52, 54-56, & 61-67 are excellent (mostly). 83-102, the Warren Ellis run, was pretty good. Everything between them... ouch.

• At November 7, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  I should probably offer at least a modest defense of the Lobdell Excalibur, or at least three issue of it, ...

• At November 7, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I never understood why they kept giving all the mutant books to Lobdell. Couldn't they tell he was screwing ...

• At November 7, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I never understood why they kept giving all the mutant books to Lobdell. Couldn't they tell he was screwing everything ...

• At November 7, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Ah, the 90s weren't all bad in comics. A lot less of your "defining runs" than the 1980s, with its ...

• At November 7, 2009, chad wrote:

  i remember that issue too well and how thought it was stupid that rachel had to sacrifice her self to ...

• At November 7, 2009, Randy wrote:

  How the hell does a "X" form a perfect cross? Is Nightcrawler stupid?

• At November 7, 2009, Monica Dickey wrote:

  Wow that's one heck of a cover. Eeewww haha

• At November 7, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Randy, FWIW:

  http://image2.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/97773051948.72.GIF

• At November 7, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  I really liked that Krueger/Sale Nightcrawler story at the time. I was getting religious myself, and am a huge Nightcrawler ...

• At November 7, 2009, Dan wrote:

  Yeah. That Nightcrawler story was really great.

• At November 7, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  1) Was there ever an X-book more superfluous than post-Claremont Excalibur? I don't think anyone could've made this book mean ...

• At November 7, 2009, Dan wrote:

  Ha.

• At November 7, 2009, The Mutt wrote:

  When I read things like this I am ever and ever more grateful that the comics of my childhood were ...

• At November 7, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  Jeff, yes, Joseph and Onslaught were terrible. Onslaught actually was largely responsible for me dropping comics altogether for 5 or ...

• At November 7, 2009, Crusader k wrote:

  "The most painful thing about this issue is that IIRC it was the first issue following Alan Davis's fantastic run. ...

• At November 7, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I guess Onslaught might've been partially responsible for me dropping comics for a decade, as well.

  I had largely ...

• At November 7, 2009, Adam wrote:

  You dropped comics after Onslaught? Man, that's when everything got GOOD again! A year later, we had Busiek ...

• At November 7, 2009, Ted wrote:

  This should be a lesson to all publishers to avoid major re-boots.

  Maybe, but as you already said you had dropped ...

• At November 8, 2009, Nick wrote:

  Ah, Britannic...

  I don't know which ignoramus came up with that concept, but it may mark as the lowest attempt ...

• At November 8, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  -"Sales increased on pretty much every book he was writing."

  It was the 90's. Comics were selling for all the wrong ...

• At November 8, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  Adam, let's not forget Marvel's interim books, like Ostrander's Heroes for HIre, Waid/Kubert's Ka-Zar, and a little book called Thunderbolts. ...

• At November 8, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Yeah, the interim books were great too. I hate when people refer to "the 90s" as awful. Really, ...

• At November 8, 2009, Philip Ayres wrote:

  I remember reading this and thinking "Don't be silly, X-Men annual 14 made it obvious Ahab is Cable". My ...

• At November 8, 2009, Ben Herman wrote:

  "The most painful thing about this issue is that IIRC it was the first issue following Alan Davis's fantastic run. ...

• At November 8, 2009, Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources wrote:

  [...] annual #15 Nostalgia November Day 05 -- Transformers #57 Nostalgia November Day 06 -- TaleSpin #7 Nostalgia November Day ...

• At November 9, 2009, smkedtky wrote:

  That Alan Davis run was so well thought out, too. Alan Davis incorporated every single previous story (fill-ins included) ...

• At November 9, 2009, Snikt Snakt wrote:

  I also loved Davis' solo run on Excalibur, and promptly dropped it when I saw EVERYTHING he did was wiped ...

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

TaleSpin #7 by Bobbi JG Weiss, Oscar F. Saavedra, and Hector Saavedra is part of the comic series spun off from the Disney cartoon. I have fond memories of watching this show as a kid, although, honestly, it wasn't anywhere near as good as Duck Tales. The concept for the series was, basically, taking characters from The Jungle Book and putting them in a seaside town where Baloo is a pilot of a small cargo plane and has run-ins with air pirates and is romantically involved with the owner of the company, Rebecca...? Actually, not so sure about that last point. Anyway, to round out the cast, there's Kit, the orphan boy that Baloo has taken in; Molly, Rebecca's daughter; and Wildcat, the mechanic.

In this story, Baloo and Rebecca go away on business for the weekend, so Kit is put in charge of watching Molly. Their initial interactions are rather funny as Molly wants to play 'sibling rivalry' where Kit will break her toy and then their mom will yell at him... But, things get all crazy when there's a knock at the door and it's Witherspoon, an asshole who searches for stowaways on planes and tried to send Kit to an orphanage. Fearing that Witherspoon has come to take him away, Kit takes Molly to Higher for Hire -- but Witherspoon follows them there apparently! Kit realises that he has to run away and packs a trunk full of things. (We see that Witherspoon leaves an envelope with Wildcat...) After stowing away the cargo hold of a plane, Molly bursts from Kit's trunk having hidden away in it. The pilot of the plane discovers them, but that's no problem since his plane is safe travel for hobos, and he takes them to Kit's old place of residence where there's a little hobo enclave. This visit doesn't do much except set up Kit and Molly returning home... via an island where hobos never return from. That's because they're being captured and made to work on a plantation! But, thankfully, Molly snoops around and rescues the true owner of the place, so he and the hobos can overthrow the assholes who took over the place. Kit and Molly make it home, Kit having a new appreciation for other people, and we learn that Witherspoon just wanted to book a vacation with the company. Oh ho ho.

In the two-page back-up strip, air pirates attack the group on the way to a fishing trip, but the air pirate leader, Karnage doesn't believe they have no cargo... which leads to the gang using fishing and beach stuff to beat up the air pirates.

I was expecting something I wouldn't enjoy, but the storytelling here was rather engaging. The art is clean and basic, very much in step with the show's look without adding anything. The plot is a little heavy-handed in its message of how family and friends are good, that being alone isn't as great as you'd think, how running away from home just leads to more problems... but it's done in an entertaining way. Granted, the only joke that really got me was the 'sibling rivalry' one, it was still a solid comic. Much better than I expected.

Tomorrow, we continue our journey to the past with... well, I don't know. Come back and see!

24 Comments

• At November 6, 2009, Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources wrote:

  [...] #3 Nostalgia November Day 04 -- Batman annual #15 Nostalgia November Day 05 -- Transformers #57 Nostalgia November Day ...

• At November 6, 2009, zodberg wrote:

  by all reason, just the basic concept of mutating the jungle book into something so absurd - the show was ...

• At November 6, 2009, Jeremy A. Patteron wrote:

  I hope there are more off-brand kiddie comics in this month!

  J.A.P.

• At November 6, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  TaleSpin was no Darkwing Duck, but it was awesome.

• At November 6, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Jeremy -- A few more maybe... as a kid, I was mostly into superheroes... and the other non-superhero stuff I ...

• At November 6, 2009, Adam wrote:

  I remember watching this show religiously on TV's "Disney Afternoon." I always thought it was strange that it apparently ...

• At November 6, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Y'know, oddly enough the thing I remember most about this show is reading somewhere, once, one of the people who ...

• At November 6, 2009, Matthew E wrote:

  I'm not sure how often it's remarked on, but I'm sure that TaleSpin was influenced by the TV show "Tales ...

• At November 6, 2009, Apodaca wrote:

  All you have to do is watch any random clip of Rescue Rangers on Youtube to see that it was ...

• At November 6, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  But that Gadget chick was HOT, for a geeky mouse! ;-)

• At November 6, 2009, ZZZ wrote:

  Not to stir controversy, but how was Rescue Rangers racist? I'm not saying it wasn't, I'm actually asking looking-for-information-wise. I ...

• At November 6, 2009, Scavenger wrote:

  zzz : my guess is it's a knee-jerk liberal reaction to King Louie.

• At November 7, 2009, Joe wrote:

  Man, I LOVED these cartoons as a kid. I remember when I moved from Florida to Arkansas thinking "why aren't ...

• At November 7, 2009, Perry wrote:

  I've still got my plastic Kit figurine that I got in a cereal box lying around here somewhere.

  Oh, the nostalgia

• At November 7, 2009, chad wrote:

  i remember thinking the show was interesting espically with shear khan as a business man. watched it along with duck ...

• At November 7, 2009, Myron wrote:

  I always felt that Tailspin probably had the least kid-appeal of all the Disney Afternoon shows (and that includes Gargoyles ...

• At November 8, 2009, Ninjazilla wrote:

  GOOF TROOP was the worst.

  I always thought Shear Khan was a badass, kinda like how Lex Luthor became to be ...

• At November 8, 2009, SuthernBoy wrote:

  I never read the comic but really enjoyed the show. This and Darkwing Duck were my 2 fave Disney ...

• At November 8, 2009, Ben Herman wrote:

  I really enjoyed TaleSpin, but I can understand why it wasn't a huge hit with younger viewers. It had ...

• At November 8, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Goof Troop was the worst. Awful show.

  And TaleSpin is on DVD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talespin#DVD_releases

• At November 8, 2009, Ben Herman wrote:

  Cool, thanks for the DVD info, Chad. Now I have to track them down.

  Ah, nostalgia :)

• At November 8, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  TaleSpin was a GREAT show! For Disney TV shows I only rate it below Duck Tales - and that's because ...

• At November 8, 2009, AdamYJ wrote:

  With all the craziness within the superhero genre during the early 1990s, people often forget that there was a short-lived ...

• At November 11, 2009, adam24 wrote:

  Talespin, weak??...I don't think we watched the same show!

  To me it was clearly above all the Disney Afternoon shows, and ...