Here's the next four covers! And click here for the master list of all the covers posted so far!

2 Comments

• At November 7, 2009, Wesley Brown wrote:

  These are all iconic. I've seen that Flash poster in almost every comic store I've ever been in.

  Keep up the ...

• At November 7, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Don't know (I'm just not a Sandman guy.), yes, kinda-but-I-think-the-Starro-one-takes-it, and yes.

We're almost done with New Frontier moments! There are still a few more to come, but this one might be the most famous moment from the whole series...

Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier #6 opens with a bunch of heroes being collected for the great fight against the evil monstrous villain the heroes now all face...

We get a very cool introduction to Adam Strange and Ray Palmer...

Then we see the pair introduced to the other famous DC scientists...

Leading to their plan - a bunch of warplanes will attack The Centre to distract it. Then a few bombers are going to sneak in close to drop a couple of nukes on the alien, hopefully leaving it so distracted that it will not be able to stop the Flash from surrounding it with Ray Palmer's shrinking device...

Now we get the preparation for the battle, and Hal Jordan shows up!

Finally, THE moment - the "slow walk" (click to enlarge)...

Sooooo awesome.

6 Comments

• At November 7, 2009, Dan Fleming wrote:

  I can hear the music swelling!

• At November 7, 2009, Manglr wrote:

  I dunno, I'm rather fond of the Eureka moment with dueling pipes.

• At November 7, 2009, chad wrote:

  got to go with the walk the gathering of heroes ready to go into battle do or die. darwyn showing ...

• At November 7, 2009, FlashJ wrote:

  Adam Strange being in Arkham is so freaking brillant

• At November 7, 2009, Monica Dickey wrote:

  @FlashJ

  Agreed!

• At November 7, 2009, cmh wrote:

  Looks like Arkham Asylam is okay with subscribing to Scientific American for at least one of their patients...

  I think Brian ...

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.

23 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 ...

Back to the moments from Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier!!

Okay, the gist of this scene (which closes out the penultimate issue of New Frontier) is that some big bad guy is wreaking havoc on the DC Universe and at the same time, all the heroes are arguing amongst themselves. Superman decides that it is time for him to inspire people (note that the captions are from the Martian Manhunter, who has telepathic powers)...

What a set-up for the last issue!!!

7 Comments

• At November 7, 2009, Crash-Man wrote:

  Yeah, I'm sort of annoyed I watched that animated movie before I read the series now...

• At November 7, 2009, The Crazed Spruce wrote:

  Yeah, so am I. It was a great moment in the movie, but would've played out SO much better ...

• At November 7, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  DAAAAAAMMMMNNNNN, that Super-guy sure got his butt kicked.

• At November 7, 2009, The Librarian wrote:

  The only sad thing here is that after watching so many episodes of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, Superman ...

• At November 7, 2009, Roman wrote:

  The Slow Walk tomorrow?

• At November 7, 2009, chad wrote:

  i would go with that moment for the shock looks on the other heroes faces over relizing they are ...

• At November 7, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  Speaking of shock. There's the following scene where Lois Lane loses her composure while trying the report on the ...

A few months ago, Carla asked us to be Phenix's godparents, which traditionally means we will take some responsibility for his education. So really, it was perfect that we had Phenix here over Halloween. Who else would explain to him about the wonder of Hammer Films?

So after the requisite trick-or-treating we prepared to induct our young godson into the joys of classic Hammer horror movies... at least, the ones that weren't too extreme for a five-year-old boy.

Phenix was dubious at first. "Is it really scary?" he asked me about The Horror of Dracula.

"Some," I admitted. "But really these movies are more just adventures. They're sort of scary but mostly they're just exciting. Like ...like when you listen to rock music really loud, or something like that. Or when you go on a ride on a roller coaster. It takes you up really high really fast, but then it lets you off safe at the end. You always know Van Helsing is going to get Dracula, so the good guys win, it's not SCARY scary."

"Even I like the Hammer ones, Phenix," Julie assured him.

Thus reassured, Phenix settled in with me to watch the first of the Hammer Draculas, and he enjoyed it as much as I knew he would. Of course, it helped that I was there to explain it to him.

But the great pleasure of the old Hammers is that there's not a lot of explaining necessary. Whether it's Dracula or Frankenstein or even the Mummy or the Gorgon, these movies all had the same basic through-line. You've got your Dumbass Meddling With Things He Shouldn't. Resulting in the unleashing of Supernatural Evil. Who's menacing several Hot Girls.

Eventually the evil gets to the Hot Girl We Actually Care About, whereupon our Noble Hero (occasionally with the aid of the Smart Older Guy) comes to the rescue and dispatches said evil.

Always in ninety minutes or less. They really are amusement-park ride films.

Which is why, despite their being marketed originally as "Terrifying! Shock Follows Shock!" and so on in their initial release, the classic Hammer horror movies fit perfectly into what I think of as comfort-food entertainment. See, it's not just that they're favorites of mine.  No, the comfort-food part comes from the pleasure of the expected. When you know going in that there are certain things that are going to happen.

Now, if it's done badly you hear sneering about things like cliché and formula. But if it's done well... you get movies that may not be capital-A Art, but are nevertheless a great deal of fun, and the genre expectations are part of that fun. Hammer applied their formula to any number of classic (and some less-than-classic) efforts, as well as creating a virtual repertory company of actors -- Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Oliver Reed, Thorley Walters -- and as a result the studio became a brand-name in itself.

I really can't think of any other movie studio that created a house style like that. You can't say "a Sony film" or "a Warner's film" or "an MGM film" and create an instant impression of what kind of movie it's going to be -- but you absolutely can say "like a Hammer film" and people who know movies immediately understand what you mean.

I'm a Batman guy and so my favorite Hammers tend to be the vampire ones, though we have many others here as well. Mostly, when I'm looking to unwind with a Hammer, I usually pick the ones that bend the formula without breaking it.

Probably my favorite is Dracula A.D. 1972.

Apart from its delightfully cornball plot about how 70s teenagers looking for "kicks" accidentally resurrect the Lord of the Undead, it's easily my favorite performance by Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. He's always smarter than everyone else in the movie, but in this one he's also cooler than everyone else, even the hip mod London kids who are so contemptuous of The Establishment. Trailer here for those that are curious.

Another favorite of mine that tweaked the Dracula formula a bit is this odd mashup, Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires.

The idea of Peter Cushing's Van Helsing teaming up with a group of young martial-arts masters to take down Dracula's vampire legions is just completely irresistible to me. Hammer horror with value-added kung fu! What's not to love about that? The trailer, here, should give you a little bit of an idea of how much fun this movie is.

The third one on my personal short-list of the Hammers I never get tired of is Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter.

This is another genre mashup, this time with an old-school swashbuckler of the Errol Flynn style inserted into the Hammer horror template. It was written and directed by Brian Clemens, who gave us the classic Avengers with Steed and Mrs. Peel, so you already know it's going to be smart, sexy fun. And with a young Caroline Munro as the requisite Hot Girl you really can't miss. The trailer is here.

All of these are available on DVD for pretty cheap, and there are also several Hammer combo sets out there as well.

All recommended. None of them are ever going to be hailed as Great Cinema, but you know, I come back to them a lot more often than I do other, classier horror movies.

And if you've got an imaginative young person around that you can enjoy them with, so much the better. Certainly this was the best Halloween we had here in a while, and I know Phenix and Julie and I had a much better time here at home, with Lee and Cushing and the House of Hammer, than Carla did at her overpriced bash downtown. (Seeing Phenix cheering, "He tricked Dracula into the sunshine and burnt him all up! That is SO AWESOME!" was even more fun than the movie itself -- and the movie's a hell of a lot of fun.)

*

You can find that same Hammer horror vibe in comics, though I don't think you see it much in current comics. When I want to relax with the comic-book equivalent of a Hammer film I have to go to the archives.

No, not Tomb of Dracula or Swamp Thing or anything like that. Those are justly acknowledged as classics and I love them, but they don't really count as 'comfort-food' entertainment. They're a little too complex, too demanding of full attention.

You know, sometimes you don't want a gourmet meal. Sometimes a bag of chips or a bowl of popcorn will do. And in those cases, for horror comics it's gotta be the old magazine black-and-whites from Warren or Marvel.

That's about as close as you can get to that particular Hammer vibe in comic books. Monsters Unleashed, Creepy, Eerie, Dracula Lives!... any of them will do.

I tend to prefer the Marvel over the Warren, but that's just my taste, I don't think there's any particular qualitative difference. My favorites are Marvel's Vampire Tales, featuring Morbius, and Tales of the Zombie.

Tales of the Zombie has been collected in its entirety in a nice one-volume Essential, but you have to go to eBay or other online dealers for Vampire Tales.

I keep hoping Marvel's got an Essential Morbius coming sooner or later -- it's about the only horror series left for them to reprint from that era. How about it, guys? If Brother Voodoo and The Living Mummy both rate, I think Morbius is overdue.

There's even -- sort of -- a Hammer horror series of paperbacks out there.

Fred Saberhagen's "New Dracula" series isn't nearly as famous as his Berserker stories or his Book of Swords fantasies, but they are hands down my favorite thing he ever did. The gimmick is that he casts Dracula as the hero.

The first one, The Dracula Tape, is the original Bram Stoker story told from Vlad's point of view. The amazing thing about it is that he doesn't change any of the events of Stoker's basic plot, but nevertheless manages to make Dracula look like the good guy. By contrast, Van Helsing comes off like a superstitious, bigoted old man.

Saberhagen followed that with The Holmes-Dracula File, An Old Friend of the Family, Thorn, Dominion, A Question of Time, A Matter of Taste, Seance For A Vampire, A Sharpness on the Neck and A Coldness In The Blood.... eleven in all. (Saberhagen also wrote the novelization of Bram Stoker's Dracula, the 1992 film, but I don't count that one.)

All these books are tremendous fun, and Saberhagen managed to ring a number of clever twists on the vampire legend without sacrificing any of the essential ruthlessness of Dracula's character. What's more, you also can enjoy the added geekery of seeing Dracula meet Sherlock Holmes, Rasputin, Sigmund Freud, and other historical personages -- something that always lights up my inner Wold Newton fanboy. There's plenty of action and hot girls, as well, which is why I will forever associate this series of novels with the Hammer version of Dracula. (In my head I always picture Christopher Lee playing the part as I'm reading them.)

I'm afraid they're all out of print, but they're pretty easy to find online used. They're just compulsively entertaining novels, and though I prefer the earlier ones, particularly An Old Friend of The Family and Thorn, they're all worth checking out.

*

Once again I find I've rambled on rather longer than I meant to, so I'll see you all back here next week as we wrap this series of columns up with some comfort-food choices in fantasy, SF, and superheroes.

15 Comments

• At November 6, 2009, Penny wrote:

  I'm not much of a horror fan - I'm the squeamish sort, but I do like the Hammer horror films. ...

• At November 6, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  The Hammer films are, like, the one gigantic hole in my horror watching. Must rectify this.

• At November 7, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  I'm glad you were selective in which Hammer films to show young Phenix. I don't think he'll be ready for ...

• At November 7, 2009, tekende wrote:

  I LOVE The Dracula Tape. Read it a long time ago and really enjoyed it. I like how just by ...

• At November 7, 2009, Edo Bosnar wrote:

  I agree with Penny: the real horror here is the damage done to household budgets by Greg's columns - just ...

• At November 7, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  I had a special surprise this Halloween: A friend of mine Emailed me an audio file from an old Radio ...

• At November 7, 2009, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  By the way, I've never read anything by Saberhagen, so I have to ask, is he responsible for turning Dracula, ...

• At November 7, 2009, Edo Bosnar wrote:

  Hmmm, yeah, Anne Rice. Years ago, I could only get through about the first half-hour of "Interview with a Vampire." ...

• At November 7, 2009, Richard Hope-Hawkins wrote:

  Thank you for mentioning my late godfather Thorley Walters - Hammer and of course working for the Boulting Brothers he ...

• At November 7, 2009, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  For me and most other fans who know the films, Mr. Walters is just as iconic a Hammer figure as ...

• At November 7, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  I'm not a bg fan of vampires per se, as opposed to horror in general -- I'm somewhat infamous in ...

• At November 7, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  (My lack of enthusiasm for vampires notwithstanding, I feel compelled to note that my first LOC in a comic appeared ...

• At November 7, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I've only seen a few Hammer films. I did see Horror of Dracula, and it was all right. ...

• At November 7, 2009, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  I also saw ... some movie with Peter Cushing fighting silicon creatures that escaped from a lab on some island.

  That's ...

• At November 7, 2009, Joe Lewis wrote:

  I think it would be really nice if you did a column on "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo."

"Inside the Outsiders!"

Written by: Alex Van Dyne

This episode clearly wants to bring us the softer side of Batman. After a long string of the Dark Knight seeming sexless, his loins burning only for justice, we're presented with a cold open involving an alluring 50s-era Catwoman, doing her best Julie Newmar impression. While the captured Green Arrow begs Batman to whip out some "Bat-catnip" or a "Bat-a-ma-jig," Batman turns to another weapon in his utility belt: his masculine wiles! He flirts with Catwoman, distracting her until he can escape-- but she returns the favor and flees into the night, but not before leaving behind her phone number.  "My only interest in her is rehabilitation," says Batman, but those pupiless slits he calls eyes don't lie, baby.

Episodes focusing on the Outsiders tend to put me to sleep. Almost every revamp this show's attempted has been great, but the surly teenaged Outsiders just don't work for me. This week's plot proper begins in medias res, with Batman bursting in on Prinicpal Snyder-- I mean, Psycho Pirate, voiced by Armin Shimerman. Batman, unable to free the teenaged Outsiders from the Pirate's mind-machine without doing them irreversible harm, subjects himself to Pirate's mental realm to rescue the wayward young superheroes. Finally, this mindbending show gets some literal mindbending!

A color theorist might have a field day with this episode, but it seems pretty random to me. Katana's nightmare-- a flashback to her secret origin and the death of her mentor-- seems to flip all the colors, painted with pinks and oranges, like taking the brown acid during an episode of Samurai Jack. The visual aesthetic intrigues me. Anyway, the more rage produced in the dream, the stronger Psycho Pirate becomes-- so Batman tries to prevent Katana from going to the realm of vengeance, and ends up swordfighting with her (naturally). She's got more lines of dialogue here than in all her previous appearances combined. Batman saves her-- from herself--! And Psycho Pirate moves onto the next victim.

Black Lightning's dream-- colored mostly in blue and gray neo-noir tones-- involves him going ape-dung over pet peeves and incredibly minor nuisances. He sweats the small stuff, and then zaps it with thousands of volts.There's a great moment where Psycho-Pirate digs his way out of a seemingly innocent bystander just to laugh maniacally at a little girl. Why? Because he's evil, naturally. Right after this, a zombie army of Yorick the Unicorn clones-- think Barney, but more frightening-- starts demanding hugs. Truly, this is a nightmare. But pull a Peter Pan-- by which I mean think happy thoughts, not kidnap children-- and everything's hunky dory.

Metamorpho's dream characterizes him as a living natural disaster, a giant monster tormented by his apparent freakishness. The colors here seem pretty normal, aside from the garish yellow-green sky. It takes the combined friendship of the Outsiders to make Metamorpho feel like a cool dude, another one of the guys. Psycho Pirate plays a literal devil on 'Morpho's shoulder, goading him on, but the usually silent Katana speaks up! Meanwhile, Batman beats the piss out of Double P. That's how he rolls.

Batman comes to, but the Psycho-Pirate's killed the gang! Of course, Batman quickly realizes he's trapped in his own nightmare, responsible for the deaths of young innocents. The Dark Knight quickly realizes it's a trap, however, and decides to get considerably less dark, grinning as he beats even more piss out of the Pirate. It's the creepiest Batman ever, but it gets the job done.

Batman's true love might be justice, but his mistress? His mistress is violence.

Moral of the Story: Hug it out, yo.

Verdict: Fairly generic, but probably the Outsiders' finest hour.

Comments:

• Batman's cape turns into a jetpack. Yes.
• "What are Batman's happiest thoughts?" Face-kicks. That's what. A certain crush of Brad's would be proud.

6 Comments

• At November 6, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  If only Black Lightning were to keep up his imaginary crusade against the real evil-doers-- people who don't clean up ...

• At November 7, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  "...Prinicpal Snyder-- I mean, Psycho Pirate..."

  Help, please, I'm not getting the reference.

• At November 7, 2009, Gavin wrote:

  Bubby the Vampire Slayer reference...I had to google it...can't stand that show.

• At November 7, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Eh, I didn't care much for Psycho Pirate, they totally changed him from the comics. Also, what were Batman's happy ...

• At November 7, 2009, Thok wrote:

  Also, what were Batman's happy thoughts?

  Catwoman, obviously. Why do you think she was the cold open?

• At November 7, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Violence making him happy would just send a very, very bad message, especially for a kid's show.

  This show occasionally botches ...

Here's the next four covers! And click here for the master list of all the covers posted so far!

29 Comments

• At November 6, 2009, Josh wrote:

  I sense a theme ...

  Today's selections are all important comics, but I'm doubtful they're all "Iconic Covers".

• At November 6, 2009, Thok wrote:

  Ooh, the first appearance of The Whip and Cliff Cornwall. :P

• At November 6, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Red, red, green, and red & green. It's an early Christmas theme!

• At November 6, 2009, chad wrote:

  got to go with the flash of two words cover for it showed that there is a mutiple universe in ...

• At November 6, 2009, Craig B. wrote:

  All extremely key, extremely iconic. Good choices, all.

• At November 6, 2009, Jeff R. wrote:

  I suspect that the 15 covers that don't make the final cut will be heavily "character debut" covers...

• At November 6, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Too bad I'm not a fan of the Flash or Green Lantern (either Golden, Silver, or Modern age).

  Anything from the ...

• At November 6, 2009, danjack wrote:

  @Josh,

  If nothing else, the Flash 123 cover is iconic.

  i personally think all of these have become very iconic. could ...

• At November 6, 2009, Iconic My Butt wrote:

  What in Kirby's name is "iconic" about the All-American cover?

  Here's a hero who can fly, plus he's invulnerable to ...

• At November 6, 2009, Ed Buskirk wrote:

  I'd like to know what Iconic My Butt thinks "iconic" means. I'm guessing it means any cover HE likes.

• At November 6, 2009, Rebis wrote:

  Wow, some haters are popping up. Maybe you wanna define "iconic" for the masses, Brian? (Not to appease Mr. Iconic ...

• At November 6, 2009, Rebis wrote:

  In fact, here's a nice rundown about its importance:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_of_Two_Worlds

• At November 6, 2009, Jeff R. wrote:

  IMB: Note that this column is presenting 90 candidates for the top 75 Most Iconic covers. In the ...

• At November 6, 2009, Adam wrote:

  i?con?ic ??

  /a??k?n?k/ –adjective

  1. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of an icon.

  2. Art. (of statues, portraits, etc.) executed according to a ...

• At November 6, 2009, Monica Dickey wrote:

  I like original Green Lantern's blouse haha. I'd forgotten about that!

  Really love these updates. Older comic art is so fun!

• At November 6, 2009, Iconic My Butt wrote:

  Came back to apologize for the bad attitude in my prevous post. Blame it on an empty stomach. Had dinner ...

• At November 6, 2009, brian wrote:

  I'd have thought Flash #92 more iconic (Black Canary through the paper circle). Got copied a lot over the ...

• At November 6, 2009, Les Fontenelle wrote:

  I have to agree - just being the cover of an important character's debut does not make a cover iconic, ...

• At November 6, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Of course, Brian is putting this to a VOTE for us, so that's your opportunity to NOT VOTE for All-American ...

• At November 6, 2009, Mike Blake wrote:

  I'll vote for FLASH #123.

  Geez, I remember a previous poll where Brian excluded first appearance covers and some complained. Now ...

• At November 6, 2009, david wrote:

  I don't see any solo covers for the following Silver Age JLA members yet:

  [Male]

  Aquaman.

  Enlongated Man.

  Firestorm.

  Green Arrow I.

  Hawkman.

  Martian Manhunter.

  Red Tornado.

  [Female]

  Black Canary ...

• At November 6, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  A lot of those characters don't HAVE iconic solo covers, David.

  But some of them do, and you'll see them in ...

• At November 6, 2009, mrjayberry wrote:

  I'm finding, as a Marvel, fan, Iconic DC covers are eaiser for me to pick. I just have to ask ...

• At November 7, 2009, Biggles wrote:

  Mrjayberry my idea of Iconic is along the same lines as you. I AM a life long DC fan and ...

• At November 7, 2009, Jason wrote:

  Two most overused words in popular culture reporting: homage and iconic.

• At November 7, 2009, Ed Buskirk wrote:

  Adam said:

  i?con?ic ??

  /a??k?n?k/ –adjective

  1. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of an icon.

  2. Art. (of statues, portraits, etc.) executed according to ...

• At November 7, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  Except for the first cover, not that iconic. There's no chance covers #2-4 will be in the top 10.

  I'm ...

• At November 7, 2009, Rene wrote:

  If by iconic we mean the cover that springs to mind when you think of the character or concept, then ...

• At November 7, 2009, sgt rawk wrote:

  There are ten more iconic Hal Jordan covers than this one. Both Flashes were excellent choices and are definitely iconic. ...

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!

15 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 ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and thirty-second in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and thirty-first.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out this installment of Movie Legends Revealed, where we learn the secret motive behind Jamie Foxx's name!

Speaking of Jamie Foxx (at least the singing part of his repertoire), this week is a special theme week! All comic legends involving MUSIC!!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Irving Berlin sued Mad Magazine for copyright infringement.

STATUS: True

Today, the idea that one would be disallowed to do a parody of a famous song is almost absurd. And yet, at one point in time there was no clear law on the subject of parodies when it comes to songs.

Such was the state in 1961 when Mad Magazine released The Worst of Mad #4, the latest in their collection of pieces from the popular satire magazine.

They had a series of song parodies.

For simplicities sake, let's pick one song, a parody of Irving Berlin's "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody," done by Mad as "Louella Schwartz Describes Her Malady."

Well, the songwriters of the world were fed up, so a group of famous songwriters got together, led by one of the most famous songwriters of all-time, Irving Berlin.

He was joined by two other legendary songwriters, Cole Porter...

and Richard Rodgers...

The case, Irving Berlin et al. v. E.C. Publications, Inc., went to District Court in New York.

Judge Irving Kaufman ruled that parody songs, especially those that only contained verbal parodies of the original song (as opposed to musical parodies, which would be a much dicier situation for years after this decision, all the way until the 1990s, really), were protected, provided that they were a limited borrowing of the original song (just enough to get the idea, really).

Of the 25 songs that were being contested (with the songwriters seeking about $1 million for each song - $1 per song per issue sold, for a total of $25 million), Kaufman ruled that 23 of them were fine, but he did hold that two of the song parodies ("Always," a parody of Berlin's "Always" and "There's No Business Like No Business," a parody of Berlin's "There's No Business Like Show Business") WERE too close to the original/contained too much of the original material.

The case was appealed to the 2nd Circuit Court in New York where Judge Charles Metzner ruled that ALL of the songs were protected.

The songwriters then appealed to the Supreme Court, who denied hearing the case, thus ending the case with a victory for Mad Magazine and parody writers everywhere!!!

Thanks to the UCLA Law and Columbia Law copyright infringment web site for the above scan and thanks to reader SanctumSanctorumComix for recommending that I feature this one (way back in January of this year).

COMIC LEGEND: Ben Orr of the Cars was related to famed letterer Tom Orzechowski

STATUS: False

The Cars were a popular New Wave band of the late 1970s and early 1980s, with hits like "Just What I Needed," "My Best Friend's Girl," "Good Times Roll," "Shake It Up," "Since You're Gone," "You Might Think" and "Drive."

The original lineup of the group was singer and guitarist Ric Ocasek, singer and bassist Benjamin Orr, guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson.

Orr sang lead on "Just What I Needed" and "Drive".

Orr tragically passed away in 2000 from pancreatic cancer.

Orr's original name was Benjamin Orzechowski, and was born in 1947.

Well, legendary comic book letterer Tom Orzechowski was born in 1953.

About three years ago, reader gorjus asked:

Are longtime Uncanny X-Men letterer Tom Orzechowski and the sadly deceased bassist/singer of the Cars, Ben Orr, related?

It sure took me a long time to resolve this one (so fear not, those who wonder if I am ignoring their suggestion, I check them all out, sometimes it just takes awhile to prove one way or the other!), but I contacted Tom the other day, and he was kind enough to send me a quick reply.

He said:

You're only the second person to ask about this!... and the first since the Cars were a new band, 30 years ago.

No, the late Benjamin Orr was not a relative, at least not close enough that our families had any knowledge of each other.

I'm also not aware of any relationship to Bob Orzechowski, who did some penciling and lettering for Gray Morrow while he was doing the Buck Rogers (I think) syndicated strip, also 30 years ago.

Orzechowski is a relatively common name, apparently. Imagine that.

Imagine that, indeed!

Well, there ya go!

Thanks to gorjus for the question, and thanks so much to Tom for the helpful and prompt reply! Very cool of him. Oh, and thanks to Lee Hester (of Lee's Comics) for the picture of Tom!

COMIC LEGEND: A musician had to change his stage name and his album cover because of DC Comics.

STATUS: True

In 2001, musician Bruce Gordon came out with a pop album called Hero and Villain in One Man.

Bruce Gordon, you say?

Say, isn't that the secret identity for the comic book character Eclipso? The villain who good guy scientist Bruce Gordon transforms to whenever there is an eclipse?!?!

Why yes, it is, and Gordon realized this as well, so he titled his album Eclipso's tagline ("Hero and Villain in One Man").

Taking it one step further, Gordon decided to TAKE the name Eclipso and even put Eclipso on the cover of the album (using art from an old issue of House of Secrets - anyone know what issue in particular?)!!

(While I'm asking, anyone have a better copy of the album cover? This one is kinda tiny).

Well, SHOCKINGLY DC didn't like this idea so much, so they sent him a cease and desist letter (it's debatable if DC would have won any sort of lawsuit, but naturally, if you're Gordon, why would you want to even push the issue?) and he quickly changed the cover of the album AND his "alter-ego," now going by Mr. Encrypto, instead.

The comic book references continued with his latest album, Secret Identity Crisis (where he does a bunch of cover songs - clever).

Feel free to check out Bruce's site here, where you can listen to tracks from each album. His cover of Ray Davies' "Dreams" is good!

Thanks to Jim Kosmicki for recommending this one back in January!!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

42 Comments

• At November 6, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Some really interesting ones this week!

  Like the name-linking one, particularly...

  I didn't realise, until we were playing "Google Yourself" in the ...

• At November 6, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Y'know, that third bit, about Bruce Gordon changing his name because of DC Comics reminds me of certain blogger who ...

• At November 6, 2009, Ortiz wrote:

  The parodies thing was very interesting. Great work Brian.

  Peace.

• At November 6, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Y'know, that third bit, about Bruce Gordon changing his name because of DC Comics reminds me of certain blogger who ...

• At November 6, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  He transformed whenever their was an eclipse? That sounds like a really rare occurance; I would think it would ...

• At November 6, 2009, kevinj wrote:

  so he put the name of a character, the tagline of a character and a piece of artwork of the ...

• At November 6, 2009, Roman wrote:

  I hope he covered "Southern Man" or something on that album...Neil Young deserves more than just an album cover reference.

• At November 6, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  Yeah seems pretty blatantly spitting in the face of DC comics to try and get away with the whole Eclipso ...

• At November 6, 2009, OTL wrote:

  Honestly, I don't really see how it could be debatable if DC could have won a lawsuit against Bruce Gordon; ...

• At November 6, 2009, Bill Angus wrote:

  I think that's a fairly common occurrence when it comes to bands. I vaguely remember a (Ottawa-based I think) band ...

• At November 6, 2009, kevinj wrote:

  just remembered a story i never quite found out was true or not that there was a band called Captain ...

• At November 6, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Honestly, I don't really see how it could be debatable if DC could have won a lawsuit against Bruce Gordon; ...

• At November 6, 2009, Carl wrote:

  Superhero universe eclipses don't generally follow the usual rules. See the TV show Heroes, for an example. In ...

• At November 6, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  There's too many K. Urbans in this world.

  It's easy to get them all mixed (nixed) up!

• At November 6, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  Obviously artists and writers (or writers and artists) get the lion's share of credit when a comic book is successful ...

• At November 6, 2009, Aaron Poehler wrote:

  "Today, the idea that one would be disallowed to do a parody of a famous song is almost absurd"

  No, it's ...

• At November 6, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Actually Eclipso changed whenever Gordon saw ANYTHING that resembled an eclipse, even a *TV picture* of one! But yeah, the ...

• At November 6, 2009, Corey wrote:

  Aaron,

  Weird Al asks for permission from the artists, but he actually doesn't have to, legally. He does it as a ...

• At November 6, 2009, Glenn Simpson wrote:

  @Aaron Poehler:

  Actually, I believe the situation is that Yankovic has decided not to do parodies unless the artist gives him ...

• At November 6, 2009, rolly wrote:

  @Adam

  Michael Jackson reportedly liked Weird Al's parodies, and saw the imitation as flattery. Since Weird Al did both ...

• At November 6, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  To Rolly-- Weird Al got permission for 'Eat It' and 'Fat', but was denied permission to base a song ...

• At November 6, 2009, A.J. wrote:

  "just remembered a story i never quite found out was true or not that there was a band called Captain ...

• At November 6, 2009, rolly wrote:

  @Mary Warner

  Per the Rolling Stone article, Al says Michael "wasn't so into it" (the parody of "Black or White") for ...

• At November 6, 2009, Rob Ocelot wrote:

  @KevinJ

  Captain America was Eugene Kelly's band after The Vaselines (probably only known today because of their influence on Kurt Kobain). ...

• At November 6, 2009, Iron Maiden wrote:

  Showing my age but the only Bruce Gordon I connected this with played Frank Nitti in the old TV show ...

• At November 6, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  @Iron Maiden -

  "Showing my age but the only Bruce Gordon I connected this with played Frank Nitti in the old ...

• At November 6, 2009, I AM FeAR wrote:

  Speaking of comic-named bands/band members, there's Jamie Madrox from Twiztid, who sometimes refers to himself as the Multiple Man and ...

• At November 6, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  I don't know if the Butthole surfers ever went by the name "Silver Surfers", they used lots of names before ...

• At November 6, 2009, Daniel Kravetz wrote:

  The infamous booklet of MAD's song parody lyrics was called "Sing Along With MAD" and was included as a bonus ...

• At November 6, 2009, RD Francis wrote:

  Actually, There was a difference between real and artificial "eclipses" - with a real eclipse, I believe Gordon transformed into ...

• At November 7, 2009, ykw wrote:

  So, with all these artists having to make name changes to satisfy comics-company law-things, why is DJ Green Lantern allowed ...

• At November 7, 2009, Tornado Ninja Fan wrote:

  The Eclipso art is from House of Secrets No. 80. It was the last appearance of Eclipso in the magazine.

• At November 7, 2009, Allyn Gibson wrote:

  Honestly, I don't really see how it could be debatable if DC could have won a lawsuit against Bruce Gordon; ...

• At November 7, 2009, Bill wrote:

  X-Factor as a phrase was in common usage before Marvel used it for a comic title. I don't think they'd ...

• At November 7, 2009, jccalhoun wrote:

  Here's another music related question. I'm not sure if it counts as an urban legend but it is something that ...

• At November 7, 2009, Gapalanaky wrote:

  Bill-

  That was just WRONG! I'm surprised DC hasn't sued over that. Although it may explain Sinestro's "mustache"!

• At November 7, 2009, dr kopp e. wright wrote:

  IRVING BERLIN, COLE PORTER and RICHARD ROGERS must be really MAD !!!

• At November 7, 2009, tekende wrote:

  Gapalanaky-

  Actually, even if DC ever found out about that club, I doubt they'd sue. They'd likely win if they did, ...

• At November 7, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Interesting stuff, JC, I'll see what I can find out!

• At November 7, 2009, Corey wrote:

  X-Factor might be too generic to really defend but Marvel's use (comic books) is different than the TV show's use ...

• At November 7, 2009, Kamino Neko wrote:

  It seems far more likely that Kurt Vile took his name from Kurt Weill (pronounced Vile) - which Moore himself ...

• At November 7, 2009, JackKing wrote:

  Kamino Neko is right, Moore took the pseudonym from Weill. He also used Jill de Ray which he snagged from ...

We're taking a quick break from New Frontier for the fifth of November with the notable introduction of a character who has an affinity for that date...

V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, opens with the following...

I'd say the explosion is "the" moment, naturally.

Great sequence as a whole, though!

What a way to start a series!

15 Comments

• At November 6, 2009, John Parker wrote:

  A truly magnificent series. I remember waiting anxiously for the next issue of Warrior magazine to come out every month ...

• At November 6, 2009, Frederyck wrote:

  Yeah, this was the series that started it all for me. Suddenly, comics weren't just about Uncle Scrooge or Donald ...

• At November 6, 2009, Ian Thal wrote:

  For me, the moment is when V quotes the Bloodied Captain's speech from Macbeth Act I, Scene ii. I ...

• At November 6, 2009, Lt. Clutch wrote:

  Who WAS that chap in the Guy Fawkes mask? An outstanding series!

• At November 6, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  I'm glad you posted this. I forgot it was Guy Fawkes' Day yesterday until I turned off my computer, ...

• At November 6, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Damn. I hate the re-coloured version... it always felt better in black and white...

  Otherwise, yay!

• At November 6, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Which explosion did you mean?

  Not that it matters. The entire series is a great read.

  Too bad the movie was ...

• At November 6, 2009, The Crazed Spruce wrote:

  I actually thought the movie was okay. The book was better, though.

• At November 6, 2009, chad wrote:

  i would also go with the look of shock on the goons faces when V comes a calling and takes ...

• At November 6, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  I also thought the movie was pretty good. No where near the level of the sourcce material, but still a ...

• At November 6, 2009, callen wrote:

  am i the only one that is reminded of Elisha Deshku when looking at the woman in some of the ...

• At November 6, 2009, danjack wrote:

  i loved the movie, even tho' there were substantial changes. also, every time they said 'conservative' i just mentally replaced ...

• At November 6, 2009, Jacob T. Levy wrote:

  It's been a while since I read V. Looking at these pages, I'm struck by what's happened to my ...

• At November 6, 2009, fourthworlder wrote:

  I thought the movie captured the comic about as well as a movie could, certainly much better than Watchmen.

  Obvious as ...

• At November 7, 2009, wwk5d wrote:

  I think the movie was one of the better Moore adaptations.

Assault on New Olympus (Prologue) by Greg Pak (writer), Fred van Lente (writer), Rodney Buchemi (artist), Guillem Mari (colorist), and Simon Bowland (letterer). "Godmarked Part One: The Oldest One" by Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman (artist), Elizabeth Breitweiser (colorist), and Tom Orzechowski (letterer). $3.99, 38 pgs, FC, Marvel.

I got the idea for this week's theme mainly from being obsessed with the bikini Aphrodite is wearing. I guess it's her goddessy powers that are actually keeping those things covered!

This is a fine "prologue" to the story that is coming up in the regular Incredible Hercules book, as it gets all the players into place, advances the story a little, but doesn't have anything too, too crucial that can't be covered quickly if you happen to skip this but read the regular title (but really, why would you do that?). If you haven't been reading the regular title (and really, what's up with that?) and just grabbed this because of that wallcrawler on the cover, Pak and van Lente do a fine job getting you up to speed. There's a nice fight between Hercules and Spider-Man (with more good sound effects), a funny reference to that Amazing Spider-Man issue where our hero was trapped under all that wreckage and the water was pouring in (you know the one!), another funny reference to when Spidey fought the Juggernaut, and some nice character moments, from Herc's reconciliation with Hebe to his reunion with Amadeus. Plus, we get an Agents of Atlas back-up (which is called "Godmarked," which is also what the second story in the X-Men/Agents of Atlas book is called), in which the Atlas gang fights a giant octopus god. You goddamn read that right - a motherfucking giant octopus god!!!!!

Damn, I love comics. I didn't even mention how frickin' terrifying Amatsu-Mikaboshi is.

Boobs? Of course!

There's also Jocasta, who's metallic but, well, naked (as young Zeus points out), a naked but demurely covered Gaea, Athena wearing battle armor that inexplicably doesn't cover her shoulders or upper torso, and Spider-Woman wearing her thing.

Atomika #11 (of 12) ("Relentless") by Andrew Dabb (writer), Sal Abbinanti (artist), Buzz (inker), Simone Peruzzi (colorist), and Dave Sharpe (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, Mercury Comics.

Speaking of reasons to love comics, Atomika is still out there, speeding toward its conclusion, and I'm still loving it. There have been certain issues where Dabb takes a bit of a back seat, and this is one of them, but it's still stunning. Basically, Arohnir tells all his minions that Atomika is coming to kill them all and they need to fight, and then we get, I kid you not, eight (8) double-page spreads showing the forces arrayed against our "hero." Abbinanti draws the hell out of the armies, from the huge spiked one-wheeled dreadnaughts to the flying Harpies of the KGB, from the ornate bombers to the horrific demi-gods. Abbinanti even gives us a single double-page spread showing the war between Atomika and all his enemies, as if it's so horrible it can only be represented symbolically. Of course, it leads to his final confrontation with Arohnir (and a special guest!), but that's for next issue.

I've written this whenever an issue has come out, but gazing on Abbinanti's stunning art is really fun. With Dabb simply along for the ride on this issue (Dabb is a fairly good writer, but this issue simply isn't focused on the writing too much), Abbinanti can go more nuts than he usually does, and the sense of oppression and terrible magnificence that he's brought to the comic all along threatens almost to overwhelm the pages themselves. Atomika continues to be unlike almost every other comic, not because of the story (it's a good story, but it's basically a superhero battle), but because of the way Dabb has made it feel like a Soviet comic (if that makes sense) and the way Abbinanti has truly created a weird and unique world. I have a feeling a lot of people have missed this, but I greatly encourage you to get the trade of the first six issues and, of course, get the trade of the second six when it shows up. It's a dynamite comic.

Boobs? Of course!

For some reason, the female demi-god, who has that big fur on because she lives in Russia and understands how cold it is, feels the need to wear a low-cut outfit and expose her midriff. How's that going to help her fight Atomika?

Batman: Unseen #3 (of 5) ("Ghost-Killer") by Doug Moench (writer), Kelley Jones (artist), Michelle Madsen (colorist), and Pat Brosseau (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC.

All right, so I skipped reviewing issue #2, because it came out two weeks ago, when I was really, really sick, so I missed that it came out and didn't get it until a few days ago. But I'm back with issue #3, and it's not like you don't know what you're getting from a Moench/Jones Batman comic, right? I mean, on the first page we see Batman working on some wacky, pseudo-scientific-but-also-slightly-Gothic machine in the cave, trying to figure out what's going on with the invisibility serum. Throughout the book, we see more and more weird contraptions, because that's the way Kelley Jones likes it, damn it!

Of course, Batman goes out and does stuff, beating up an invisible man (because he's the Goddamned Batman, man, so he doesn't need to actually see the bad guys like mere mortals!), making an appearance as Bruce Wayne (I always liked how Jones's Bruce Wayne was almost as scary as his Batman), and doing his Batman thing. Meanwhile, the invisible man kills again, Moench's favorite character Roman Sionis recounts his origin yet again, and it's another Moench/Jones instant classic. Don't listen to T.! Moench and Jones on Batman is always a blast of pure awesomeness! Come on - for one of the chapter breaks, Jones turns Batman's head into a candle! Who else would come up with something so wacky????

Boobs? Of course!

The invisible man tries to kill that dude, and of course his wife is sleeping in lingerie instead of sensible pajamas!

Black Widow: Deadly Origin #1 by Paul Cornell (writer), Tom Raney (penciler), John Paul Leon (artist/colorist), Scott Hanna (inker), Matt Milla (colorist), and Cory Petit (letterer). $3.99, 21 pgs, FC, Marvel.

I don't get this book at all. It's 4 dollars for 21 pages of story, which is a bad return. I know I said I wasn't going to fall for this from Marvel again, but it's Paul Cornell, and I really want to support his work, so there's that. But that's not what I don't get. The end of the book gives us a "Next," but which issue is "next"? Marvel's December solicits include Black Widow and the Marvel Girls #1 (God, what an awful title), which is a mini-series by a completely different creative team than this one (Paul Tobin and Salvador Espin, in case you're interested). Marvel then has issue #3 of this series up on their site for January, but I can't find where issue #2 is. Hmmm ... Then, issue #3 is still $3.99, presumably for the same amount of pages (21 or 22), so I think I will skip the rest of the series, even though I want to support Cornell. I'm sorry, Marvel, I'll pay 4 dollars for an indy book, but when you can slap a 4-dollar price tag on a 38-page book (see above) and on a 30-page comic (see below) but aren't able to sell a book featuring, let's face it, a middle-tier character in your stable for 3 dollars, why should I pay it? It will just come out in trade in a few months anyway.

It's kind of shame, because this is a decent comic. It's not quite as good as Rucka's work with the character at the beginning of the decade, but it's pretty good. Cornell does a good job jiving it with long-established "continuity" with regard to Logan and Natasha in World War II (Natasha seems a bit old during this section, based on what we discovered back in that great Uncanny X-Men issue, but I'll forgive it), and Leon, who is apparently the go-to artist when you need someone to draw something in Russia, does his usual fantastic job depicting the action. Raney's art is always good, even though I assume Milla "Marvelized" it by smoothing out the rough edges. There's plenty of action, a mystery to be solved, and Bucky Barnes! I didn't love this part too much, because Cornell falls back on simply listing who he is and what he means to Natasha instead of working it better into the story, but that's okay. It always seemed less intrusive when narrative boxes were more common. When they just show up occasionally and read "James Barnes, now a free man. And upgraded. Enough of a boyfriend to use her nickname," it's kind of jarring. Oh well.

I'd really like to get this mini-series, but I'm not gonna. I'd rather spend my four dollars on something like GrimJack. Come on, Marvel, you're flush with Mouse Cash - keep the prices on your regular-sized books at $2.99!!!!!

Boobs? Shockingly (in a book starring a character who often wears black latex), not really. On the credits page we get Natasha in her black latex, but it's surprisingly chaste. I guess that's a win for Cornell, Raney, and Leon!

Elephantmen #22 ("Dangerous Liaisons Part Seven of Eight: 7 Days of Smog Part One: Truth") by Richard Starkings (writer), Andre Szymanowicz (artist), and Gregory Wright (colorist). $3.50, 23 pgs, FC, Image.

As always, I have to thank Richard Starkings for sending this to me, and I hope it's not too late for you to still find it on the shelves if you're interested (it came out two weeks ago). Should you buy it? Of course you should! It's, what's the word ... oh yeah, excellent. I know I sound like a broken record and I really do tell Starkings that I would buy his comic if he didn't always send it to me for free, because it's so damned good! After last issue, when Ebony went a bit nutty thanks to the thing in his head (which allows humans to control the elephantmen), Hip and Miki show up at his place to find out what's going on, and of course he doesn't remember anything. His red eyes freak Hip out a bit, but he doesn't get a chance to explore that. Meanwhile, Vanity meets a man named Simm, who showed up a few issues ago and is a bit mysterious, and he tells her that Obadiah Horn is selling Elephantmen paraphenalia, which piques her curiosity. Of course, she shouldn't trust him, but he's so darned cute! What's a poor girl to do? (Remember the Golden Rule of Comics, kids: Never trust anyone who's attractive!)

Szymanowicz is another good choice for the art chores - his women are slightly different than we usually see, but Miki and Vanity are still, you know, smokin'. Szymanowicz has a nice indy style that seems to fit with the "Blade Runner" kind of world that Starkings has created - he throws in all sorts of nice touches in the street scenes that make Los Angeles two hundred years in the future feel like a foreign place even as Hip visits a normal neighborhood in Santa Monica. It's a really nice-looking comic, and the final page is gorgeous. It's nice to see Szymanowicz getting some higher profile work. Next for him: Selling out to Marvel!!!!

Elephantmen just keeps trucking along, with good issue after good issue. If Starkings didn't get new artists every few issues, I'd never have anything new to talk about with regard to it! I'd just write, "Ho hum, another brilliant issue. What else is new?" Thanks, Richard, for helping your poor reviewer out!

Boobs? Well, I guess, as Vanity and Miki are in the book, but they're wearing fairly normal clothing, so there's nothing too obnoxious about it.

The God Machine (preview book) by Chandra Free (writer/artist). $3.95, 36 pgs, FC, Archaia.

This is the first of three (3) Archaia books on the agenda this week, only one of which I bought on my own (this isn't it). It's always nice to get stuff in the mail, and I'd like to thank the fine folk at Archaia for sending these on to me. I'm also glad they're getting their books out a bit more regularly, and are doing new stuff (like this) as well as cleaning up their back catalog.

Of course, the problem with getting stuff in the mail is that sometimes you just don't like it. I can't really recommend The God Machine, not because it's a preview and doesn't tell a complete story, but because it's not really my thing. The art is very Johnny the Homicidal Maniac kind of stuff, which I'm not too keen on, although I appreciate the work Free put into it - this is very much a labor of love, and there's a lot of energy on the page, even though I don't really like the style. The story isn't my thing, either - seventeen-year-old Guy Salvatore is pining away for his (presumably) dead girlfriend, bitching about how his school sucks, and seeing things. He ends up in a cemetary, where two gods - the Good God and the Evil God - show up digging out a grave. Guy seems to know the Good God (she's a hot redhead, whereas the Evil God is a dude, natch), but before they can speak to each other, they disappear and Satan shows up. He tells Guy that his girlfriend is still alive in another dimension and only he can save her. And, of course, she's trapped because of the gods' messing around with reality. Guy, naturally, doesn't believe him. And thus the preview ends.

It's not a terribly bad plot, but Free sprinkles too much weird shit into it that drags it down, even though it's supposed to make things more manic. For instance, the book begins with Guy watching television late at night, and a show comes on starring "Everybody's favorite suicidal sock puppet, Mr. Insane Sock Puppet," who naturally tells kids to commit suicide. It's supposed to be funny (I guess), but I don't find it funny, and it sets the tone for the book, with Guy being kind of jerk to everyone (yes, I know his girlfriend just died, but it seems like he'd be a jerk even if she was alive) and everyone yelling a lot. Guy has a very keen creepy dream at one point, but that's about the only thing I really liked in the book. Maybe I'm just too old to enjoy something like this. I am pretty old, you know. It just never feels like Free does much to create interesting characters - she spins the clichés of Goth kids fairly well, but just because you twist those a bit doesn't mean you're creating an interesting character. I assume Guy's quest to find his girlfriend (whose nickname is "Sith") will be the crux of the book, and will intersect with the gods and what they're up to, but based on this preview, I don't really care if Guy succeeds or not.

I hate not liking this. Free writes in the beginning of the book that it's taken her ten years to get the book to publication, and you can certainly tell that she's put a lot of herself into it. You can check out her web site, her DeviantArt page, or The God Machine page to see more of her artwork, in case it's up your alley. It's just not up mine.

Boobs? Hmmm, the one book drawn by a woman features several attractive women, but none flashing a lot of cleavage. I'm stunned!

Greek Street #5 ("Book One: Blood Calls For Blood Part Five: The Anger of the Gods") by Peter Milligan (writer), Davide Gianfelice (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colorist), and Clem Robins (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC/Vertigo.

I'm 90% certain I'm done with Greek Street, because this is the end of the first story arc, and it's just not doing it for me. The reason it's still only 90% is because in this issue, Milligan hints that the characters are actually the mythic characters themselves, not just people who happen to be living out lives that resemble characters from Greek myths. I'm not sure if he's hinted this before, but it's kind of interesting. Other than that, though, this is still a bit of a mess, and it's not really doing much for me. Milligan doesn't seem to have a clear idea about what he wants to do, even though I'm sure he has a long-term plan. The book just seems so all over the map, and it makes it very hard to get into it. Milligan has tightened the focus a bit as he's gone along, but not enough for me. I just find myself not caring very much about what happens next, which doesn't bode well.

I do like that Milligan seems to have a balls-to-the-wall kind of attitude about this book with regard to who lives and who dies, as it seems like nobody is safe in this book. That's always fun, because I get annoyed when a writer has a favorite character and obviously has no interest in harming that character. Suck it up, writers! Milligan doesn't seem to have that problem, and it makes reading this a bit jarring, which is actually kind of neat. But I don't think it's enough! We shall see, but I doubt if I will pick up the next issue. So sad!

Boobs? Of course!

This is the first panel in the book, and it's a boob. Greek Street features plenty of nudity, significantly none of it male frontal.

GrimJack: The Manx Cat #4 (of 6) by John Ostrander (writer), Timothy Truman (artist), Lovern Kindzierski (colorist), and John Workman (letterer). $3.99, 25 pgs, FC, IDW.

Speaking of why comics are great, Ostrander sends Gaunt back in time to discover the secret of the Manx Cat, and Gaunt inhabits the body of a vigilante monk who fights demons, is in love with a fellow monk (who doesn't know about it), visits the ruler of Cynosure's churches and has to get by three belligerent heads, and then fights ... battle cherubs. The fact that I can write that sentence and not have fellow blog readers think I'm snorting angel dust is why comics are goddamned awesome. It's not even that weird an issue! It is, however, brilliant as usual. Oh, and Gaunt/St. John of Knives ends up in a different dimension facing a mummified (but still sexy) cat goddess. Of fucking course.

Damn, I love comics. Yes, I already wrote that, but I don't care! It's still true!

Boobs? Of course!

You can't have a sexy mummified cat goddess without some boobs!

The Secret History #6 (of 7) ("The Eagle and the Sphinx") by Jean-Pierre Pécau (writer), Igor Kordey (artist), Carole Beau (colorist), Marshall Dillon (letterer), and Edward Gauvin (translator). $5.95, 46 pgs, FC, Archaia.

It's been quite some time since The Secret History saw the light of day, and while it might not be for everyone, I'm still loving it, mainly because (as I've written before) I'm a total sucker for history and alternate history, which we get in large doses in this book. Each issue moves the grand plot along (a plot, I'm sorry to say, that I'm extremely fuzzy on, mainly because it's been so long since I've read the previous issues, but it involves immortals manipulating humanity, to be as basic as possible), but each issue, because they're separated by hundreds of years, also tells a compelling story in its own right, which is a keen trick. In this issue, Napoleon goes to Egypt, but not for the reasons you might think. This gives Pécau the opportunity to give us some nice battle scenes, some nice creepy scenes in which sand creatures attack the French, and gives Kordey the opportunity to draw the mysterious Orient, and as usual, he draws the heck out of it. Whenever I read anything drawn by Kordey, I need to remind people who only know him from X-Men that he's very good and that his work on X-Men was compromised by the fact that he was churning out an issue a day (which may be exaggerated, but not by much). He does a wonderful job with a large cast of characters, a sprawling canvas of locations, from Toulon to Egypt to Syria, and some horrific violence. The book feels a bit crowded, with a lot of panels and a lot of narration and dialogue, but it flows very nicely due to Kordey's art.

I do hope the final issue isn't too late. I'm looking forward to the grand finale!

Boobs! Of course! It's European! Which means that the only boobs are naked ones, pretty much in the service of the story. There's nothing terribly gratuitous about it, which is nice. It's just there.

Secret Six #15 ("Control") by John Ostrander (writer), Jim Calafiore (artist), Jason Wright (colorist), and Travis Lanham (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC.

One of the things that's nice about the minor characters in the DC (and Marvel, of course) canon is that it's fairly easy to keep track of what's going on with them if you're so inclined. As they pop up not too often, they don't have years and years of backstory to incorporate. Of course, that's not always the case - I'm not sure what the hell is going on with Looker - but it does apply quite often, and if you happen to have read about the character a lot, you won't be too lost when someone like Ostrander writes about someone like Deadshot. Despite being in Suicide Squad for its entire run and being a fairly popular villain for 30 years, it's not too difficult for Ostrander to recount the major points in Floyd's life, and he even manages to update his origin for the hell of it. It's your typical excellent Ostrander tale, with Floyd feeling out of control (as he seems to be in Secret Six recently) and seeking the advice of John Ostrander himself, in the form of Reverend Richard Craemer, Ostrander's stand-in the DCU (and who, frankly, I'm surprised is still alive - why hasn't Geoff Johns slaughtered him yet?). He walks around with Craemer, explaining how he came to be and getting sound advice from the good reverend. Although there's not a lot of action and we are positive Floyd isn't going to kill Craemer like he claims he will, it's a gripping tale, because Ostrander gets Floyd better than anyone who's ever written him (including Steve Englehart, who brought him out of mothballs back in the Seventies), and Ostrander is also quite good at writing Richard Craemer. Calafiore, Bill Reed's favoritest artist EVAH, does his typical yeomanlike work on the book - if you hate Calafiore, you won't change your mind seeing this, but if you don't mind him (I kind of like him), this is more of the same.

As much as I dig this book, I really hate when Ostrander shows up in the DCU and starts writing stuff like this. It makes me miss Suicide Squad and The Spectre even more. Goddamn.

Boobs! Of course!

Bruce Wayne in his "Bruce Wayne" role? You know he'll have scantily-clad women near him!

Strange Tales #3 (of 3). "Cool Hand Uatu" by Nick Bertozzi (writer/artist) and Chris Sinderson (colorist); "Oni" by Stan Sakai (writer/artist) and Tom Luth (colorist); "The Fortune Full X-Man" by Corey Lewis (writer/artist) and Dylan McCrae (colorist); "Fantastic Fool's Day" by Jeffrey Brown (writer/artist) and Bill Crabtree (colorist); "La Querelle des Monstres" by Jay Stephens (writer/artist); "Cup Cake!" by Chris Chua (writer/artist); "The Abominable Peter Pepper!" by Max Cannon (writer/artist); "The Punisher" by Jonathan Jay Lee (writer/artist); "The Incorrigible Hulk" by Peter Bagge (writer/artist); "Let's Fight" by Michael Kupperman (writer/artist); "Nightcrawler Meets Molecule Man" by Paul Hornschemeier (writer/artist); "Look Out, Sub-Mariner! ... Here Comes the King Crab" by Becky Cloonan (writer/artist). $4.99, 48 pgs, FC, Marvel.

Ah, yes, Strange Tales. Has anyone - Joey Q, some other bigwig at Marvel - ever explained exactly why Peter Bagge's Hulk story was shelved? I kept waiting for Hulk to eat a kitten and rape General Ross - or, you know, the other way around - so that I could say, "Oh, so THAT'S why," but it never happened. It was a silly Hulk tale, but nothing terribly objectionable. Does anyone know what the backstory is?

Other than that, this remains a mixed bag. I still think the first issue was the best, and the second issue the worst, with this falling somewhere in between. I didn't get the feeling of mockery of Marvel's characters that I did from the stories in the second issue, but I also didn't get the feeling of revelry in the glorious goofiness of Marvel's characters that I did from the stories in the first issue. Sakai's Hulk story is fine, nicely drawn (not surprisingly), but kind of dull. Corey Lewis's Longshot story is dazzling to look at, but like The God Machine, it makes me feel old. Jeffrey Brown's Fantastic Four story cracked me the fuck up, I'll tell you that much. The Beast versus Morbius story was fun solely because of the odd juxtaposition of the two characters beating on each other while engaging in a philosophical debate. I don't know what the fuck is going on in Chris Chua's story, and I don't think I'm alone in that. Max Cannon's contribution was better than the one in the second issue, but still not too funny. Jonathan Jay Lee's Punisher story might actually get me to read a Punisher issue, if only for how different it looks. Michael Kupperman's Avengers story is funny until we get the worn-out Hostess Fruit Pies ending. Paul Hornschemeier's weird story also features philosophical musings, sans the punching. And while Becky Cloonan's story is ... strange, to say the least (fitting for the anthology, I guess), I can't not love her art, and Marvel should give her a Sub-Mariner mini-series, stat!

I'm probably always going to support this kind of thing from Marvel and DC, unless the quality is really, really bad. Unlike Brad Curran, I actually occasionally support these creators' independent stuff, and it's very neat to see them unleashed on iconic comic book characters. I mean, Uatu's comment about Kraven on the first page is almost worth the price of admission!

Boobs? There aren't a lot of women in this book, but the ones that are there are dressed normally and aren't showing anything.

Stumptown #1 ("The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo but Left her Mini Part One") by Greg Rucka (writer), Matthew Southworth (artist), and Lee Loughridge (colorist). $3.99, 35 pgs, FC, Oni Press.

There were two main reasons I purchased this comic:

1. Greg Rucka is writing it. I pick on Rucka when he's writing Detective because I just don't think the writing is that strong, but for the past decade, he's been one of the good writers in comics when he's able to do this kind of crime book, from Whiteout to Queen & Country to Gotham Central to Checkmate. So when I saw he was writing a private eye book, I was jazzed.

2. I fucking love Portland, where this book is set ("Stumptown" is a nickname for Portland). That may seem like a lame reason to buy a comic, and of course if the book sucks it won't matter where it's set, but I really would like to get across how much I fucking love Portland and wish I still lived there. There's absolutely nothing I don't fucking love about Portland, and that includes the crappy winter weather. Whenever goddamned Jeff Parker posts on his blog that he'll be signing his latest goddamned excellent comic at Clackamas Town Center or somewhere else in the greater Portland area, I leave a comment on his blog damning him for living in Portland. Damn you, Jeff Parker!!!!! So, needless to say, I was jazzed about Rucka writing a crime comic set in Portland. If someone told me I could move back to Portland and have a nice house in Alameda or by Mt. Tabor or down in Westmoreland or Oak Grove or up by the University or out in the Northwest or even a little further out in Lake Oswego or West Linn or even Tigard and all I had to do was kill Apodaca, I'm afraid he wouldn't be long for this world (sorry, Dan). Yes, I'd risk life imprisonment to live in Portland! (Although, let's be honest, who'd miss him? Oh, I kid, Dan, I kid!!!!!!)

Of course, now I have another reason to purchase Stumptown, and that's because Southworth's art, which I've never seen before, is very good, even when he's not drawing Portland landmarks. And, of course, Rucka's story is nice and twisty, as we're introduced to the unfortunately-named Dexedrine Callisto Parios (we learn that on the final page, and also that everyone - thankfully - calls her "Dex"), a private investigator with a big gambling problem. To get out of debt, she agrees to find the granddaughter of the casino owner (manager?). The girl disappeared, and it seems several people are looking for her. Of course, Dex is approached by someone else who's looking for, someone who scares the girl, apparently, because she calls Dex and says "he" wants to kill her. Dex arranges a meeting, it all goes pear-shaped, and she ends up in police custody. Just another day in the life of a seedy private eye!

Rucka keeps things moving along nicely, and he gives Dex a brother who has special needs (I'll guess Down syndrome, but it's not clear), which humanizes her a bit. There's also an implication about her relationship with Sue-Lynne, the casino owner (or manager), but we'll see where that goes. It's a solid first issue, with a dynamite beginning and a nifty little mystery.

And it makes me miss Portland even more. Damn you, Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth. And I wouldn't kill you, Dan. You're too neat a guy. Maybe I'd just have to maim you. We cool with that?

Boobs? There's one panel where a woman wearing a bikini steps from a pool, but it's not obnoxious at all.

Sweet Tooth #3 ("Out of the Deep Woods Part Three") by Jeff Lemire (writer/artist), José Villarrubia (colorist), and Pat Brosseau (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC/Vertigo.

Sweet Tooth remains an odd comic, one like Greek Street, in that I'm not sure if I'm really loving it or not (in pretty much every other way, it's unlike Greek Street). I dig Lemire's art, and he brings a true feel of the rural world to the book that you don't see too much in comics. It's a bleak world he's created, and when terrifying things happen, like Gus's dream, it's even more terrifying because of the setting, and when Gus and Mr. Jepperd show up in a town, we feel the tremendous emptiness, due mainly to Lemire's art. However, I'm not terribly sure if the story is all that compelling. I mean, there's nothing terribly original about a plague wiping out most of humanity, and Lemire hasn't done a lot yet with the fact that Gus is a human-animal hybrid (although the end of this issue might change that next time). I stuck with Wasteland, another post-apocalyptic story, as I waited to figure out what Antony Johnston was doing with it, and I was rewarded for my patience. From what I've read of Lemire so far, I think he knows what he's doing and will make this worthwhile, so I'm going to be patient for this too. But right now, I'm just not loving it. It hasn't grabbed me yet. I hope it will.

Boobs? There's only one panel with a female in this book, and she's wearing a simple dress. Does the Cinderella preview count?

Titanium Rain #1 and 2 by Josh Finney (writer/artist) and Kat Rocha (artist). $4.99, 48 pgs, FC, Archaia.

This is the third Archaia book I received in the mail, and like the first one, I'm not going to recommend it. I read about Titanium Rain when it was first solicited, but it didn't sound like something I'd like. In 2032, a civil war in China has brought in an international peacekeeping force. As there is a lack of good fighter pilot candidates, some of the wannabes have been injected with various nanomachines to make them better. So the story is about whether these people are still human. In the first two issues (which are combined here), it's a lot of fighting and not a lot of philosophical discussion, but Finney still brings it up nicely, all the while making sure the situation in China is fairly realistic. It's not a great story, but it's not a bad one, either.

However, I can't stand the art. It's done in that digital "realistic" style where the artists (both Finney and Rocha are credited) actually use models and somehow scan their faces into the computer. It's really, really creepy, because we get what looks like movie stills but in sequence, which makes this look like a movie that's not moving. Comics are a static medium, and trying to do this kind of thing never works. Using models is perfectly fine, but making the book look like it's a series of photographs robs it of any dynamism, and everything looks extremely plastic in this book. It takes me right out of the story, as I find myself staring at each face, wondering if the doctor in the book is the Bettie Page chick from NCIS, looking at the weirdly dead eyes of the characters, and it just doesn't work. With good art, this might be an interesting comic. With this, it's really unpleasant.

Of course, at the web site, you can check out some of the art and read some of the praise of the book. Don't let me stop you from buying it!

Boobs? It's a war comic! Everyone's in uniform! Although NCIS chick does have a tiny bit of cleavage going on, but not enough to be remotely egregious.

The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh #2 (of 4) by Mark Waid (writer), Minck Oosterveer (artist), Andres Lozano (colorist), Javier Suppa (colorist), and Marshall Dillon (letterer). $3.99, 22 pgs, FC, Boom! Studios.

Waid's weird detective saga continues, as Catherine and Adriana head to Alabama to investigate some murders that an amateur detective told her about. It turns out the "amateur detective" is a kid who suddenly got really smart, which is strange enough. But someone really doesn't want Catherine to be in Alabama, and things get violent at the end, as one bad guy is revealed and the other ... well, he has an axe. The mystery continues, and as usual, I have to wonder what's important and what's not. Are the gloves important? ARE THEY????? Oh, the drama!!!!! Plus, Waid delves a bit deeper into Catherine's brain problem and why she doesn't get it operated on. It's a nice character moment in the middle of a weird story.

Oosterveer, of course, continues to dazzle, especially now that he has two hot women to draw instead of one. But he also does a really good job with the creepiness of Mountain Oak, Alabama, and he gives the climax a nice tense feel to it. He's the kind of artist whose earlier work I want to track down, because he's so talented.

I honestly have no idea where Waid is going with this, but it's a very cool read. What about James, Mr. Waid? Is there more to his story?!?!?!?!???!?

Boobs? Of course! Check out that cover!

Two well-endowed women solving crimes? Where's the FOX television show????

X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas #2 (of 2) ("The X-Heist Part Two" and "Godmarked") by Jeff Parker (writer), Carlo Pagulayan (penciler), Gabriel Hardman (artist), Chris Samnee (artist), Carlos Rodriguez (penciler), Jason Paz (inker), Terry Pallot (inker), Wilfredo Quintana (colorist), Veronica Gandini (colorist), and Joe Caramagna (letterer). $3.99, 30 pgs, FC, Marvel.

Parker wraps up his nifty little crossover with more fighting, eventual reconciliation, and Namor not acting like a dick for once. Way to go, Namor! What's keen is that Parker does a nice job explaining just what the hell was going on with the Chris Samnee-drawn section of issue #1, which was, you know, kind of confusing. And although I'm not sure why Aphrodite gives Venus a tramp stamp, the endgame, drawn by Hardman, is pretty cool. Aphrodite even gets a joke in as the Agents of Atlas battle her!

This would have worked a lot better as part of the Agents of Atlas ongoing, because it's so obvious that the X-Men are here just to goose sales, but it won't help the ongoing now, will it? Unlike most crossovers, this is basically an Agents of Atlas story with the X-Men being there just because they're famous. I mean, it's commendable that Parker tries to make them important, but they're not, really. This is all part of the Agents getting involved in the Hercules world, and Parker does his usual fine job putting all the pieces in place and entertaining the hell out of us, but it doesn't feel like an important crossover, you know? I mean, like one where it's a story about both teams? Even though Parker tries to do this, it still feels like an Agents of Atlas story. That's not a complaint, by the way, because Parker's Agents of Atlas was better than pretty much every X-book, but it's a shame that Parker needed to bring in the X-Men to tell this story.

But it gets us to where we need to go, which is Assault on New Olympus, which directly follows this issue. See? This is the Möbius strip of comics reviewing! How's about that!

Boobs? Of course!

But not too much. I mean, Venus doesn't wear a lot in general, so of course there's going to be some. But there's nothing terribly gratuitous.

I don't really have a point with all the cleavage, but it's worthwhile pointing this stuff out occasionally. The last time I did this, it seemed a lot more gratuitous. That was a few years ago. Maybe we're making progress!

And hey, it's time for totally random lyrics!

"Once you take a hit of this
You won't ever wanna quit
You'll be so addicted
Said I'll have you spinning round and round
Crazy, making freaky sounds
You won't want to come down
And I'll have you seeing things and hallucinating
Even walking funny 'cause your legs are shaking
All night we'll be blazin'
I'll take you for a walk to the other side
We can get high and enjoy the ride
Hold tight we'll be all right"

We're still friends, Dan, right? Right?

20 Comments

• At November 5, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  Question about the "Bruce Wayne" persona: has it always been around, or is it a more recent invention of the ...

• At November 5, 2009, Rebis wrote:

  This is a bit off-topic — sorry Greg — but you did review a Boom! Comics title, which reminds me ...

• At November 5, 2009, Aperture wrote:

  Irredeemable is a great book in my opinion so you should pick it up right away, Rebis. Then again, ...

• At November 5, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  Man, I didn't read any of those books.

• At November 5, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  The Bruce Wayne persona is pretty much there in Detective Comics #27, where he yawns through the Commissioner's story about ...

• At November 6, 2009, JackKing wrote:

  You know, if we pooled our money together, we could buy that house for Greg...

• At November 6, 2009, Johnny P wrote:

  The Faith No More line was much more interesting than John Legend lyrics.

• At November 6, 2009, Manglr wrote:

  The gratuitous guest stars is one of the things killing Agents of Atlas for me. I thought the ongoing ...

• At November 6, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Rebis: Irredeemable is one of those things that I may pick up eventually, but I feel no need to rush ...

• At November 6, 2009, Craig wrote:

  Regarding "Irredeemable": I started reading it, and was blindsided by how uncompromisingly violent and brutal it was. The first issue ...

• At November 6, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  I dropped The Secret History when I noticed that Igor Kordey wasn't drawing ALL of the series.

  I'm just of the ...

• At November 6, 2009, s1rude wrote:

  I think there is an Irredeemable trade out - 10 buck for four issues, which is a $6 savings over ...

• At November 6, 2009, Manglr wrote:

  @Greg

  You're right of course about trying to goose sales of Agents of Atlas, but at what point does oversaturation of ...

• At November 6, 2009, Chip Mosher wrote:

  Wow! What a bunch of IRREDEEMABLE haters. :P

  FWIW, this is our top selling book, with the latest issues outselling the ...

• At November 6, 2009, CW wrote:

  Writting this from the south waterfront downtown portland as we speak! Be thankful you're not up here this weekend, huge ...

• At November 6, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I haven't read any of these.

  Did the Black Widow really fight in World War II? I never heard of ...

• At November 6, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  1990's Uncanny X-Men #268 established Black Widow being around during World War II.

• At November 6, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Thanks. I stopped reading X-Men in 1989, so I guess I just missed it. How did they explain ...

• At November 6, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Mary: I'm not sure if they've explained it before, but Cornell explains it in this very issue! Bucky gives ...

• At November 7, 2009, MikeCr wrote:

  Irredeemable isn't bad but it could be better. Even at its best I feel like it'd only be considered ...

A number of Japanese manga, such as Fushigi Yugi and Saiunkoku Monogatari, have previously made use of Chinese cultural history and legends.  Hero Tales does so as well, but puts an intelligent shonen spin on its story.  Unlike Fushigi Yugi, which uses a framing device of a modern girl falling into the past by accident, Hero Tales focuses upon the fulfillment of a legend in which seven heroes -- who represent the seven stars of the Big Dipper -- have the power to throw the Empire into complete chaos or to save it.

On first glance, the title's main character -- Taitou -- appears to be your average shonen hero who wants to become strong, but on closer inspection he is much more interesting than that.  He seems unconcerned about the fact he has yet to complete his coming-of-age-ceremony, which is an event where a young man completes a fight with an older, skilled warrior.  Taitou hasn't completed the ceremony because he is bad at fighting, but because he yet to come across a fighter skilled enough to make him accept defeat.   This twisted logic just makes me like him more, I think.  When a disciplined martial arts master comes to town -- called for the express purpose of defeating Taitou -- a series of complicated events are set in motion.  Taitou's status as one of the heroes of legend is revealed but he isn't just any hero.  He is one of the two heroes who are destined to fight each other and draw the world into a state of destruction.

After Taitou accepts his defeat like a "man," an ancient sword is bestowed upon him that can only be drawn by a true hero.  Which means Taitou can't use it just yet...however, his untapped and alarmingly out-of-control powers are awakened when a warrior-for-hire steals his sacred sword and threatens his sister's life.  With power rushing unchecked through his body, Taitou practically destroys himself with the force of his anger and his lack of control.  With the sword is successfully stolen, and Taitou's identity as a "hero" of legend revealed, the manga heads quickly into the shonen quest narrative path.  Taitou, the skilled warrior who defeated him, and Taitou's sister, Laila, set out to retrieve the sword and track down the other "heroes" of legend.

Unlike a lot of shonen titles, however, once the main story is set in motion, there's no sense of stagnation or of drawing out an epic quest for the sake of a quest.  Instead, progress happens immediately, as the group comes across another "hero" (each of the seven heroes are marked by a special tattoo on their bodies) and more of the legend starts to unfold before the group's very eyes.  Taitou is a likable shonen lead who is rather emphatic about his designs on power -- not only as fighter but as a countryman.  He likes to begin sentences with the phrase, "When I become Emperor...."  While others like to laugh at his audacity, it is clear there are some very dangerous people who take him seriously as a rival, and one rather scary badass who actually sees Taitou as his fated rival.

Hero Tales is a rather excellent configuration of shonen tropes -- it tends to take the best of them and excises many of the excesses (such as fights that last forever, the emo-ness of the hero).  The art, of course, is quite excellent and while Arakawa offers many familiar character types (the main antagonist reminds me very strongly of Bradley from FMA), she excels in both her character work and in her fully realized representation of a powerful and potentially corrupt Empire.

Review copy provided by Yen Press.

4 Comments

• At November 5, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  Sounds interesting. I've enjoyed FMA quite a bit, so I'll try this in the hopes that it will have all ...

• At November 5, 2009, Danielle Leigh wrote:

  Definitely less wrist-splitting despair! This isn't a big investment because right now there are only 4 volumes and I ...

• At November 6, 2009, Reading Over Shoulders | Extremely Graphic wrote:

  [...] Danielle Leigh’s Reading Diary at Comics Should Be Good contains Hero Tales volume 1. [...]

• At November 7, 2009, Saturday sampler « MangaBlog wrote:

  [...] Kyoshi (Animanga Nation) Lissa Pattillo on Exotic and Delicious Fate (Kuriousity) Danielle Leigh on vol. 1 of Hero Tales ...

Here's the next four covers! And click here for the master list of all the covers posted so far!

29 Comments

• At November 5, 2009, Dennis Costa wrote:

  Wow, today's batch was a biggie. They should ALL be in the Top 10, and especially the first three.

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  And therein lies the rub, Dennis.

  So many great covers - which one will make the top of the list?

• At November 5, 2009, buttler wrote:

  No argument here. Every one a classic. And hey, it's Weezie!

• At November 5, 2009, Patrick Joseph wrote:

  Wow. I've owned 3 of those as the original comic. The Flash issue I've got in at least 3 reprints. ...

• At November 5, 2009, Thok wrote:

  Today's theme is "Covers that marked the appearance of a new age of comic books", right?

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Ha!

  I've eschewed themes so far, but I actually DO have a funny theme I want to use - I've got ...

• At November 5, 2009, buttler wrote:

  You know what I miss? The Cover Theme Game. Not that there's any lack of other things ...

• At November 5, 2009, Andrew Collins wrote:

  Fantastic choices all around.

• At November 5, 2009, Rene wrote:

  All the covers so far have been amazing, with the exception of the Atom cover, that was underwhelming.

• At November 5, 2009, RCorman wrote:

  The Crisis cover is a really nicely drawn and a powerful image, and it was just as powerful the first ...

• At November 5, 2009, chad wrote:

  hard choice espically seeing my favorite batman story in the list but finaly went with crisis on infinite earths where ...

• At November 5, 2009, buttler wrote:

  a cover truely deserving of being iconic espically since it got duplicated as cyclops holding jeans corpse in the dark ...

• At November 5, 2009, Craig wrote:

  I never realized before how much Swamp Thing's wife looks like 30 Rock's Jane Krakowski.

• At November 5, 2009, Craig B. wrote:

  Now these are iconic!

• At November 5, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Well, 3 out of 4 isn't too bad.

  The Dark Knight Returns is one of Miller's better covers.

  Definitely cannot beat that ...

• At November 5, 2009, Dave wrote:

  As much as I hate Frank Miller and DKR, I'm going to go with that cover, although Showcase #4 is ...

• At November 5, 2009, Dan K wrote:

  House of Secrets is a famous cover but is it Iconic? If it was homaged with completely different characters, ...

• At November 5, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Yep, all those are top tier iconic quality. Although I never did care too much for that Crisis cover, it ...

• At November 5, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  I see Fifties, Seventies, two from the Eighties. All Magic. Oh, DC. Will you ever get your act together? ...

• At November 5, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  It's funny how I recognize so many more of these covers than the Marvel ones.

• At November 5, 2009, Mason King wrote:

  I'm feeling sentimental, so I'll go with Showcase #4 tonight. Tomorrow, it could be DKR.

• At November 5, 2009, dhole wrote:

  I was hoping we'd see House of Secrets, Dark Knight and Crisis, and here they are all popping up together! ...

• At November 5, 2009, Cully C wrote:

  I know which one Mike Sterling is going to vote for.

• At November 5, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  I'm with buttler, I miss the cover theme game. Really, I miss the whole Snark Free Corner. That was my ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  In fairness to Marvel, the last poll listed panels, which are bound to be less iconic than the covers are.

  But ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  If it was homaged with completely different characters, would you immidiately get the reference?

  Yep.

• At November 6, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  The top one reminds me, I have "Clint - The Hamster Triumphant" somewhere...

  :-D

• At November 6, 2009, Carl wrote:

  The Crisis cover isn't iconic because of the pose. It's iconic because it's a powerful image and marked a ...

• At November 6, 2009, Hank wrote:

  How can the most iconic cover NOT be Action 1?

The Nostalgia November archive can be found here.

Transformers #57 by Simon Furman and Jose Delbo is one of four remaining Transformers comics that I own. I never had a huge collection of them, but I did have more. I've no idea where they are now, only that the four I still have are in rough shape. The cover to this issue is barely attached to the comic itself, the corners very dogeared... this is a comic that's been loved, my friends. A lot of the comics in this box look like this and while some of you are cringing, I think it's fantastic. I didn't just read comics as a kid, I destroyed them by reading them too much. Of course, you'd think having read this comic so much that I'd have fond memories of it, but I don't. I have vague memories surrounding this issue and the others I own -- the other three being parts two, three, and five of the five-part "Matrix Quest" (at one point, I had the entire story), about getting them or reading them... but I don't remember the specifics too much. I may pop in on the other issues throughout the month -- "Transformers Thursdays"? I love alliteration and themes. But, let's get to the comic...

Throughout the issue, I coloured certain parts of characters in with blue pen... like Ratchet's little tuning fork thing on his head. But that doesn't really impact anything...

Megatron is back after blowing himself up back in issue 25. He's back and he's got a pretty solid plan to take over Cybertron and destroy the Autobots once and for all. He needs Ratchet's medical help with some sort of weird armour that was probably a toy first... the armour alters the body inside and they want a doctor to make sure nothing goes wrong. If not, they've wired the Ark (the Autobots' ship/home) with explosives and will blow it up. The final page reveals who Megatron wants to put in the armor as he holds up the destroyed remains of Starscream...

Meanwhile, on Earth, Optimus Prime and the Autobots confront some Decepticons called the Air Strike Patrol. Optimus sports a more advanced look here, based on a new toy version of him. (I had that toy, actually. Basically, it was a giant Optimus that came in two parts: the torso transformed into regular Optimus and the cabin of the truck, and the body became the trailer and attack base. So, you could have Optimus as a giant, ultimate version of himself, as his regular self complete with small attack base, or in transport truck form. It was pretty sweet.) The Air Strike Patrol are acting as a distraction as Megatron does his work on Cybertron. Eventually, Scorponok arrives and a fight breaks out. Optimus is apparently going through a dark phase as he is a violent motherfucker, ready to kick some ass. He calms down when some humans are almost hurt, but, by that time, the Air Strike Patrol has abandoned Scorponok and things look like they'll be over.

The art here is serviceable. Not the best storytelling, but it's also trying to get across emotion with giant robots. Not a bad read. I wish I had the next issue (which I did have at one point because I remember the cover -- which is shown on the letters page) as it's where Optimus goes even further apparently. "Optimus Unleashed!" Hells yes.

This issue is a solid one-two story: Megatron is back, more calculating and evil than ever, while Optimus Prime is becoming more cold and violent... the two always work best as a binary, playing off one another, and it's almost like we realise that Megatron's absence has resulted in Optimus not having his opposite evil self to define himself against. Part of why Optimus was so good was that Megatron was so evil -- he had an opposite example to follow in a sense. I imagine a future issue has the confrontation between the two where Optimus returns to his more heroic roots.

Tomorrow, who knows. Next Thursday: Transformers #63.

34 Comments

• At November 5, 2009, Raskal66 wrote:

  Oh how I loved the Tranformers before Michael Bay sharted all over them.

• At November 5, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Heh. Michael who? Someone asked Raymond Chandler once what he thought of Hollywood ruining all of his books. He took ...

• At November 5, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  To be truthfully honest, I was more of a Micronauts fan, than GI Joe, or Transformers.

  And to this day, I've ...

• At November 5, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Look, Transformers was an entirely toy-driven book. I tried getting back into it during these issues, and I was ...

• At November 5, 2009, tk. wrote:

  Even as a tyke, I could never get into anything Transformers beyond the toys. The toys themselves were pretty fantastic, ...

• At November 5, 2009, John Mihaly wrote:

  I picked this comic up in the airport on a family trip to Arizona twenty years ago and I ...

• At November 5, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Wraith -- Thanks for letting me know I'm not missing much with the next issue.

  John -- That's a cool coincidence.

• At November 5, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  I had a horrible stomach flu when I was about 8 or 9, and one of the only things that ...

• At November 5, 2009, Thelonious_Nick wrote:

  Was never a big Transformers fan as a kid but I certainly read an issue or two. My problem ...

• At November 5, 2009, Corey wrote:

  Transformers was the gateway comic for me too. When Simon Furman took over the series, it really started to take ...

• At November 5, 2009, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Well, it would only be for the four Thursdays of November... since I only have four Transformers comics.

• At November 5, 2009, Corey wrote:

  Heh, well I'll take what I can get.

  And kudos to you for reading the heck out of your copy.

• At November 5, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Chad -- Here to help. :-) So far I'm really enjoying this series; an entertaining mix of "I've got that!" ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  And thanks to Cronin for being Cronin.

  Yay me!

• At November 5, 2009, Mandeville wrote:

  for the top ten story lines voting I had transformers issues 5 - 12 when Ratchet was the last autobot ...

• At November 5, 2009, Corey wrote:

  But Mandeville! That's how we end up with Kang and Kodos!

  (Eh, I probably would've done the same.)

• At November 5, 2009, buttler wrote:

  Well, Tom, Micronauts was actually a good comic. Not quite ROM good, but close enough.

  Still, I can't help ...

• At November 5, 2009, Daniel O' Dreams wrote:

  Of course Starscream is going in the super armor. Why was Megatron forever relying on Starscream to carry out his ...

• At November 5, 2009, Ben Herman wrote:

  Oh, I loved, I tell you, LOVED the transformers comic book when Simon Furman was writing it. Okay, I ...

• At November 5, 2009, chad wrote:

  i loved the marvel transforemrs comic. though do not recall much of that issue or the story line where optimus ...

• At November 5, 2009, Chris McAree wrote:

  You have no idea how complicated this story made the history of Megatron continuity-wise in the UK comics! You see, ...

• At November 5, 2009, mrjayberry wrote:

  Jeff Holland- I had some teeth removed once and they had to put me under. Afterword my mom was ...

• At November 5, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  Aw, man! That's why they don't have comics in the drug stores anymore, Mrjay! You ruined it for everybody!

• At November 6, 2009, Philip Ayres wrote:

  Pretenders were a year and a half earlier in Issue 40. This story is about the Classic Pretenders which ...

• At November 7, 2009, Ellis Wyatt wrote:

  An odd side-effect of the marketing-driven nature of the '80's Transformers comics is how much instability it introduced in the ...

• At November 7, 2009, Corey wrote:

  I love the internet! A smartly written analysis of the Transformers US comic? Yes please!

  Nicely done, Ellis Wyatt.

  While I ...

• At November 7, 2009, John wrote:

  Remember when the Beast Wars? When they made the robots into monkeys and shit?

  God, that sucked.

• At November 7, 2009, Ellis Wyatt wrote:

  Actually, the Beast Wars series is well-lauded in Transformers circles for being the smartest-written TF TV show for many years. ...

• At November 7, 2009, Philip Ayres wrote:

  > Sunstreaker was brutally (and casually) murdered by Shockwave in he

  > fifth or sixth issue of the series, and ...

• At November 7, 2009, Ellis Wyatt wrote:

  Sunstreaker was eventually rebuilt, and appeared in several crowd scenes, doing absolutely nothing of importance. Being ripped apart by Shockwave ...

• At November 7, 2009, John wrote:

  "Actually, the Beast Wars series is well-lauded in Transformers circles for being the smartest-written TF TV show for many years."

  You ...

• At November 7, 2009, Ellis Wyatt wrote:

  I don't joke about giant metal tyrannosaurs rexes. That's Serious Business.

• At November 7, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  The only hardcore Transformers friend I ever had (college friend) loved Beast Wars, so perhaps it really is well-regarded!

• At November 7, 2009, Ellis Wyatt wrote:

  Take a gander at any Transformers message board and ask around; while there will always be some who absolutely hate ...

Welcome to the Comics Should Be Good Top 100 Comic Book Storylines poll!

It's been awhile since we've done one of these, and the end of the year is always a good time for it, I think.

It's time to vote for your top ten all-time favorite comic book storylines!

Here's the deal. You folks all vote in the comments section here up until 11:59 PM Eastern time, November 25th (the day before Thanksgiving), I'll tabulate all the votes and I'll begin a countdown of the winners starting November 27th!

Sound good?

Okay, here are the guidelines!

1. Vote in the comments section below, making sure to include that classic word "ACBC" somewhere in your comment so your vote will be marked invisible.

2. Vote for your ten favorite comic book storylines. Vote for TEN - less than ten storylines and I don't count your ballot.

3. Rank your ten favorite comic book storylines from #1 (your most favorite) to #10 (your 10th most favorite). I'd prefer it if you actually numbered your entry, #1-10. It's easier for me to count.

4. Your top choice will be given 10 points, your second choice 9, etc.

5. A comic book storyline is a main plotline that continues under one title, whether it be the title of the comic it appears in (like the Kree-Skrull War in Avengers or the first battle against Ra's Al Ghul in Batman) or the title of a crossover (like Crisis on Infinite Earths, Utopia, Seven Soldiers, etc.).

6. A comic book storyline must be at least two issues long. One-off stories need not apply, Even though that eliminates graphic novels like the great Asterios Polyp and one-shots like The Killing Joke, but, well, them's the breaks.

7. Unless clearly labeled as a storyline, there is a 12-issue limit for storylines (this is to dissuade votes like "Preacher #1-60" as one storyline). Galactic Storm is clearly labeled a storyline, even though it lasts more than 12 issues, same with Church and State in Cerebus. Fall of the Mutants also likely lasted more than 12 issues, but was clearly labeled as a storyline.

8. When listing your storyline, just try to make it clear what you're talking about.

9. I'll make various decisions in the interest of fairness.

If you have questions/clarification requests, feel free to ask them in the comments section below.

Remember, please include the following word: ACBC - on your ballot. It will make it so your ballot appears invisible to other readers, so only I can read it (and count your vote secretly).

Most importantly, have fun!

Now vote!

98 Comments

• At November 5, 2009, Sprout wrote:

  Cool idea !

  Does 52 count as a storyline ?

  Does one of the sories in 52 (example : "Animal ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  No to the first one, but yes to the second.

  In other words, no to "52" but yes to "Animal Man, ...

• At November 5, 2009, Sprout wrote:

  OK. Thanks !

• At November 5, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  Hmm. That ruling on 52 seems to violate rule 7.

  Then again I hate rule 7 as it stops me ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Hmm. That ruling on 52 seems to violate rule 7.

  It is saved by rule 9, which is the most ...

• At November 5, 2009, Bernard the Poet wrote:

  Brian, in your capacity as judge and jury can you confirm/deny that the following are storylines, please:-

  1) Daredevil #31 - ...

• At November 5, 2009, Bernard the Poet wrote:

  Oh, me again....

  Is Frank Miller's Elektra Saga, one storyline or two (the death of Elektra/the resurrection of Elektra) ?

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  1) Daredevil #31 - #81 (Bendis/Maleev) - from Silke revealing Daredevil's secret identity to Daredevil going to prison.

  Deny.

  2) Wonder Woman ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Is Frank Miller's Elektra Saga, one storyline or two (the death of Elektra/the resurrection of Elektra) ?

  Two.

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Last night, when he was giving me some help with the guidelines, Steve Gerding came up with a good term ...

• At November 5, 2009, Ajit wrote:

  Does the original saga of Ra's Al Ghul, which ran in non-consecutive issues of Detective Comics and Batman in 1971-1972, ...

• At November 5, 2009, fit2print wrote:

  Remember when you were back in school and your English teacher would say: "I want you to write a 500-word ...

• At November 5, 2009, The Crazed Spruce wrote:

  Would a self-contained mini-series (say, "Watchmen" or "Crisis on Infinite Earths") be considered a storyline?

• At November 5, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Actually... I'm questioning whether it would be possible to reduce these features a bit? "Cool Comic Book Moments," "Iconic Covers," ...

• At November 5, 2009, Gabe wrote:

  Just a couple of questions:

  1- How are we to treat manga for a list like this? Example: Naoki Urasawa's Monster ...

• At November 5, 2009, Jeremy wrote:

  Would All-Star Superman count? Its twelve issues, "supposely" an on-going, and it does have an overarching story running through the ...

• At November 5, 2009, MCGroupy wrote:

  Tough call, as this series has me mesmerized every month with all the great arcs... I guess I'll settle for ...

• At November 5, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  Is From Hell discounted because it's a melodrama told in SIXTEEN parts and not twelve?

• At November 5, 2009, Ninjazilla wrote:

  Ooh i think All star superman should count, without going into Spoilers for anyone who for some reason hasnt read ...

• At November 5, 2009, Gavin Bell wrote:

  if we provide a top 10 and some of our choices are disallowed (e.g. you decide Watchmen doesn't count), does ...

• At November 5, 2009, nikki wrote:

  I thought All Star Superman was really disjointed. A lot of one shots with a single premise that was on ...

• At November 5, 2009, Danielle Leigh wrote:

  I'm kinda sad -- I don't know U.S. comics well enough to participate in this poll.

  But I look ...

• At November 5, 2009, Mory Buckman wrote:

  The twelve-issue rule seems totally arbitrary. I would have picked Planet Hulk, but that's fourteen issues so I guess it's ...

• At November 5, 2009, Adam wrote:

  So, wait...does the 12-issue limit eliminate stories like Crisis or Civil War? As individual series, they're within the limit. ...

• At November 5, 2009, Josh wrote:

  KJE: you need to include the magic word mentioned above in order for your vote to be counted.

• At November 5, 2009, Tekende wrote:

  What do you mean Daredevil 31-81 doesn't count? Yeah, it's 50 issues, but it's clearly all one storyline, and if ...

• At November 5, 2009, Stefan Wenger wrote:

  Mory... It's twelve issues UNLESS it's clearly marked as a storyline. So Planet Hulk counts, and as he said ...

• At November 5, 2009, Da Fug wrote:

  Man, I swear people just comment without reading posts. Half these questions can be answered by reading the fucking ...

• At November 5, 2009, Jeff Ryan wrote:

  Brian, what if people forget to mention a Quasar storyline? Does Rule 9 allow you to add it in, since ...

• At November 5, 2009, Teebore wrote:

  So, wait...does the 12-issue limit eliminate stories like Crisis or Civil War? As individual series, they're within the limit. However, ...

• At November 5, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  Look at rule 7, folks. The 12 issue limit is only for storylines not expressly labeled as storylines. Planet Hulk ...

• At November 5, 2009, Patrick Joseph wrote:

  While we're vivisecting your standards...

  The first story I thought of was American Gothic, which ran from Swamp Thing 37 - ...

• At November 5, 2009, Colin.ynwa wrote:

  "I'm kinda sad -- I don't know U.S. comics well enough to participate in this poll. "

  There's nowt that says ...

• At November 5, 2009, GarBut wrote:

  Brian, it's hard to see through all the nitpickyness, but try to remember: These comments indicate overall enthusiasm and excitement.

  Good ...

• At November 5, 2009, Jeff R. wrote:

  So, (1) anything that has an official name as a subset of the overall title is good, even if it ...

• At November 5, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  Andrew Collins:

  I don't want to nitpick but shouldn't Locas be broken up in to storylines like "Wigwam Bam" and "Death ...

• At November 5, 2009, Patrick Joseph wrote:

  Andrew: Earth Stories, American Gothic and Death of Speedy were the first 3 things that sprang to my mind. Great ...

• At November 5, 2009, franser wrote:

  What about a story that was not contained in consequential issues, but as a dangling plot? For example the revelation ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Does the original saga of Ra's Al Ghul, which ran in non-consecutive issues of Detective Comics and Batman in 1971-1972, ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Would a self-contained mini-series (say, "Watchmen" or "Crisis on Infinite Earths") be considered a storyline? Yes.

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Actually... I'm questioning whether it would be possible to reduce these features a bit? No.

• At November 5, 2009, Thenodrin wrote:

  Is "Kraven's Last Hunt" invalid by Rule 5?

  Theno

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  1- How are we to treat manga for a list like this? Example: Naoki Urasawa's Monster as one big storyline? ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Is "Kraven's Last Hunt" invalid by Rule 5? No, it was the title of the crossover.

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Would All-Star Superman count? Its twelve issues, "supposely" an on-going, and it does have an overarching story running through the ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Is From Hell discounted because it's a melodrama told in SIXTEEN parts and not twelve? No.

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  if we provide a top 10 and some of our choices are disallowed (e.g. you decide Watchmen doesn't count), does ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  The twelve-issue rule seems totally arbitrary. I would have picked Planet Hulk, but that's fourteen issues so I guess it's ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  So, wait...does the 12-issue limit eliminate stories like Crisis or Civil War? As individual series, they're within the limit. However, ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  What do you mean Daredevil 31-81 doesn't count? Yeah, it's 50 issues, but it's clearly all one storyline, and if ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Brian, what if people forget to mention a Quasar storyline? Does Rule 9 allow you to add it in, since ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Look at rule 7, folks. The 12 issue limit is only for storylines not expressly labeled as storylines. Planet Hulk ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  The first story I thought of was American Gothic, which ran from Swamp Thing 37 - 50. Too long?

  No, that's ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  There's nowt that says that the runs have to be American.

  Yeah, feel free to vote for Manga!

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Brian, it's hard to see through all the nitpickyness, but try to remember: These comments indicate overall enthusiasm and excitement.

  Good ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  What about long storylines with semi-official names? The original clone sage, for example, not that anyone ought to vote for ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  What about a story that was not contained in consequential issues, but as a dangling plot? For example the revelation ...

• At November 5, 2009, Andrew Collins wrote:

  Brian,

  Thanks for removing my boneheaded mistake.

  I don't want to nitpick but shouldn't Locas be broken up in to storylines like ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  That's a fair point, Kevin. If Brian discounts "Locas" as a whole, then "Death Of Speedy" would be my replacement ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It doesn't matter how many issues the Civil War storyline runs, since they are all clearly part of the Civil ...

• At November 5, 2009, Ken Raining wrote:

  So one could vote for something that has an unofficial storyline name, like the Galactus Trilogy, but not, say, Mike ...

• At November 5, 2009, Andrew Collins wrote:

  Thanks, Brian. Hate to be a pain, but I just caught one more mistake. I meant Incredible Hulk #417-418, not ...

• At November 5, 2009, rhod wrote:

  As much as I hate to ask more nit-picking questions...

  Would something like 'Age of Apocalypse' count? It wasn't strictly a ...

• At November 5, 2009, Dan K wrote:

  What about your Ghost World? Would that count? I would hope so.

• At November 5, 2009, Steve Gerding wrote:

  Since Brian brought it up, when we were hammering out the rules for this last night over IM, I mentioned ...

• At November 5, 2009, Jeff R. wrote:

  Judas Contract ended with #44 and the annual, so any grouping that doesn't go back further than #34 should be ...

• At November 5, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  @Steve Gerdling- I think that's a good distinction, though "Fall of the Mutants" might not be the best example. ...

• At November 5, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  Hey, is there a way to know if/when our nominations have been accepted?

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Would something like 'Age of Apocalypse' count? It wasn't strictly a single storyline, more like a collection of stories in ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  What about your Ghost World? Would that count? I would hope so.

  My Ghost World? :)

  And yeah, that would certainly count.

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Since Brian brought it up, when we were hammering out the rules for this last night over IM, I mentioned ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Hey, is there a way to know if/when our nominations have been accepted?

  Does it say that your post is up ...

• At November 5, 2009, Steve Gerding wrote:

  @DanLarkin - fair enough! It's been a loooong time since I read it.

• At November 5, 2009, Steve Gerding wrote:

  UBER-ARC!

• At November 5, 2009, GarBut wrote:

  I do very much like "über-arc" as a catch-all term for the magnitude of Daredevil #31-81.

  I was hoping, though, that ...

• At November 5, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  Hey, Brian, where would you say the Dark Phoenix saga begins? I have a collected edition that begins with ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  The simplest answer is just to say "The Dark Phoenix Saga." :)

  But seriously, I would say #129-137, like the trade ...

• At November 5, 2009, Craig B. wrote:

  Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about "Days of Future Past" and the original "Brood" storyline in X-Men (that was ...

• At November 5, 2009, Adam Messinger wrote:

  If you count the entirety of Ultimates 2 in there then add that as my vote instead of just the ...

• At November 5, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  What about Peter Gillis's Doctor Strange series in Strange Tales vol 2? Does that count as a single story? ...

• At November 5, 2009, CriticalFel wrote:

  3 things:

  a) For this poll's purpose, I'm guessing The Death of Superman doesn't count, but either Doomsday!/Funeral for a Friend/Reign ...

• At November 5, 2009, James wrote:

  You may strike this out if it is irrelevant but would current running story lines that are only one or ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  You may strike this out if it is irrelevant but would current running story lines that are only one or ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  a) For this poll's purpose, I'm guessing The Death of Superman doesn't count, but either Doomsday!/Funeral for a Friend/Reign of ...

• At November 6, 2009, Dan Felty wrote:

  Thanks, Brian! I put some good comics on my list.

• At November 6, 2009, Sprout wrote:

  Does the Englehart/Simonson/Rogers run on Detective Comics count as one storyline ? (the romance with Silver St Cloud and the ...

• At November 6, 2009, Nick Evans wrote:

  What about extended series that are not uber-arcs but were clearly intended from the outset to have a finite duration? ...

• At November 6, 2009, Dalarsco wrote:

  He specifically said no to all of Preacher, so break those up into arcs and pick your favorite.

• At November 6, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Does the Englehart/Simonson/Rogers run on Detective Comics count as one storyline ? (the romance with Silver St Cloud and the ...

• At November 6, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  This....

  This is going to be tough...

  Part of me wants to put certain 2000AD storylines in there (Apocalypse War, Khronicles of ...

• At November 6, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Does "Scarlet Traces" by Ian Edgington and D'Israeli count? I think it was originally a web-comic, then a mini-series, then ...

• At November 6, 2009, Rene wrote:

  The whole of Sandman clearly is not a single storyline. The Doll's House and Season of Mists are very different, ...

• At November 6, 2009, Chris McAree wrote:

  I'm spending far too much time making a huge list! Then trying to whittle it down! I need to get ...

• At November 6, 2009, Dave wrote:

  "The whole of Sandman clearly is not a single storyline. The Doll's House and Season of Mists are very different, ...

• At November 6, 2009, Philip wrote:

  It all comes down to common sense guys, really.

  Read the rules, Brian leaves doors open to almost anything you want ...

• At November 6, 2009, Black Manta wrote:

  I can't decide between Secret Wars II or Dark Knight II. Should I just flip a coin?

• At November 6, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  I know I've asked as many questions as anyone else but I can't wrap my head around how to compare ...

• At November 6, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  Also, I need help. Ditko left Strange tales with 146 and wrapped up the ongoing Dormmamu/Eternity storyline. Does ...

The look at Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier continues!

Okay, so the set-up for this scene from New Frontier #5 is that some big bad alien is causing all sorts of trouble. Hal Jordan has just become Green Lantern, but he's still, well, you know, green, but he was a hero even before he had a magic green ring, as shown by his following actions...

That kiss is amazing.

14 Comments

• At November 5, 2009, mizike wrote:

  Are there going to be many more "New Frontier" moments? They're starting to wear a bit thin...

• At November 5, 2009, JJ wrote:

  If Hitchcock had filmed this, the rocket would have gone into a tunnel.

  More Cooke, please. The Parker ...

• At November 5, 2009, Stephane Savoie wrote:

  Thought the story for NF was kinda thin, but I do enjoy seeing a kiss accompanied by Kirby Krackle.

• At November 5, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Oh, I don't know, I thought the "moment" is where he called her "Miss Rich Bitch" right to her face. ...

• At November 5, 2009, chad wrote:

  i would go with the speech Hal gives Carol saying he learned to survive some times he is willing to ...

• At November 5, 2009, Mark McD wrote:

  Turning Carol into Star Sapphire was the dumbest thing they could've done in GL, but let's face it, the rules ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Are there going to be many more "New Frontier" moments?

  Depends on your definition of "many".

  At least three more.

  They're starting ...

• At November 5, 2009, Kirayoshi wrote:

  Y'know, given the date today, maybe you should take a one-day break from New Frontier(not that I don't enjoy these ...

• At November 5, 2009, Aaron wrote:

  As much as I love Cooke's drawing style, his page layouts have never done it for me. The pin-up ...

• At November 5, 2009, Roman wrote:

  Y'know, I'm just going to come out and say that I think the story for New Frontier is pretty awesome, ...

• At November 5, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Surely one of the greatest kisses in all of comics. Thank you Mr. Cooke for all these sublime moments.

• At November 6, 2009, NotThatGuy wrote:

  I think the archive page is broken, at least it hasn't worked for me for two days.

• At November 6, 2009, fanboy d wrote:

  I'd quite happily read 365 Cool New Frontier Moments. But more Cooke from anywhere will do.

• At November 7, 2009, Trey wrote:

  Back when men were men and women were women.

(Really, if everyone here isn't already reading www.the-isb.com, I have no idea what else I can do.)

7 Comments

• At November 5, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  That is pretty darn great.

• At November 5, 2009, DubipR wrote:

  7 kinds of awesome!

• At November 5, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I've never read New Gods, so I might be missing some jokes, but I have read a lot of Archie. ...

• At November 5, 2009, Tony wrote:

  This link to Simms is directing to a former pro. football player. :-)

  Funny stuff though.

• At November 5, 2009, Dean wrote:

  That was fantastic.

• At November 5, 2009, chad wrote:

  that thing was hilerious archie as orion fighting reggie who should be darkside. lol

• At November 6, 2009, FuryOfFirestorm wrote:

  This is what happens when you mix NyQuil with DayQuil, kids!

The Best Comic Ever (This Week):

Assault on New Olympus #1 (A.K.A. Incredible Hercules vs. Amazing Spider-Man, A.K.A. Incredible Hercules #137 1/2, A.K.A. Incredible Herc/Agents of Atlas Double Feature With Spider-Man Is Like Nerd Porn For Brad Curran)

So, yeah, this is a comic where Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente writes a fight between Spider-Man and Hercules over a seemingly airhead goddess. It has everything that makes Pak, Van Lente, Incredible Herc, Spider-Man, Marvel Comics, mythological superheroes, and comics in general great. Rodney Buchemi's not too shabby on the art, either. And then there's an Agents of Atlas back up by Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman, which is just not fair to other comics that do not have Agents of Atlas backups. Which really oughta be all of them.

And yes, the other comic I considered for this honor was X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas, which really makes me want a Jeff Parker Uncanny X-Men run, even he will probably wind up being as hamstrung by writing Uncanny X-Men as Fraction, Brubaker, and everyone else since... Claremont? The first time? And only like one really good half? Still; Jeff Parker for President of the X-Men is something I'm all for. Can someone start a meaningless petition for that?

Other comics I bought this week in brief(-ish):

Ghost Riders: Heaven's On Fire #4- Now with 99% less Ghost Riders! Kind of an off issue for Aaron and Boschi, but it did at least have a goth spiritual terrorist hottie fighting Madcap. Don't see that every day. I have like negative interest in the back up reprints, for some reason. And that reason is I never wanted to like Ghost Rider before Aaron wrote him, and those things remind me why that is.

Marvel Zombies: Evil Evolution- So, yeah, that's too much zombie viscera in my dopey ape superhero comic. A real sour way for a run of comics I probably liked too much to end (especially with no Peyer back up?!?!?!), but I guess that's what I get for following their attempt to turn a sleeper hit in to a franchise.

Strange Tales #3- A mixed bag, for sure. The highlights for me were: Stan Sakai's Hulk, because it's Stan Sakai drawing the Hulk; the art on Corey Lewis and Dylan McCrae's Longshot story (I mean, it's something that could have been in X-Men Unlimited, and the dialogue almost gave me a seizure, but it looked pretty), Jay Stephens' fun Beast vs. Morbius short (get that guy on a Beast mini/ongoing now!), Jeffrey Brown's "FF are jerks" gag strip (I really like funny Jeffrey Brown), Paul Hornschemeier's downbeat, effecting Nightcrawler Meets the Molecule Man (which features the saddest super villain monologue ever), and Michael Kupperman's Avengers, which is incalculably better than any other Avengers comic ever.

The lows were Peter Bagge's cute but underwhelming Hulk serial (the whole "the story Marvel didn't want you to see until now" aspect of it didn't help at all), Jonathan Jay Lee's trailer for a Punisher revamp we'll never (with art I couldn't get in to at all), Max Cannon's dumb Amazing Fantasy #15 riff, and whatever it is Chris Chua was drawing (that guy works with Khoi Pham? For reals?).

Becky Cloonan's Namor strip was the median. Great art, as you'd expect, but what was with that reveal at the end? (That said, I'd buy the hell out of a Super Villain Team Up revamp with Doom as Namor's deadbeat roomate, so good on Ms. Cloonan there.

I liked Strange Tales overall. People who waited for the trade are in for a nice package, I think, but it was also fun in singles (not $5 fun, each time, but good enough to justify $15 for three issues). Of course, I'm the guy who loved the first Bizarro Comics anthology and have barely read any of the people involved's indie work, so... yeah, I'm that guy. Moving on.

Mighty Avengers Assemble Hardcover- Got this at the LCS's Halloween sale. I really liked the Bendis/Cho arc. The one where Bendis and Bagley team up for the last time, not so much (well, what I've read; haven't finished it, because seriously; Mark Bagley is as not very good at drawing big action comics as Bendis usually is at writing them). But yeah, that Bendis/Cho arc; first Avengers I've ever really liked outside of Kupperman's just now.

I was pretty surprised, since I've always found Bendis's New Avengers (featuring a roster I uniformly like) to be almost good. Mighty (where I like 2 1/2 of the characters, and one (Ms. Marvel) only because she's good in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2) I really dug on a "widescreen comics" level. Also, Cho's actually a pretty good comic book artist, and not just a pin up guy! Who knew? I almost feel bad that they blew up this team for Secret Invasion. And hey, thought balloons! I forgot I missed those!

*Three comics I would have bought on normal weeks were disqualified because I didn't buy them: Buffy because I dropped it (push came to shove, and I was going to just get that Willow one shot and pack it in anyway; now I'll just do that retroactively), Captain America: Reborn because I left it for later (trade if all else comes fails, since I have the rest of Brubaker's run that way), and Deadpool Team Up because I forgot it/didn't get home with it. Also, I only bought Marvel stuff this week, so there's that awful bias going on. Be sure to tell me what else I forgot/why my opinion is wrong, folks!

15 Comments

• At November 4, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  he will probably wind up being as hamstrung by writing Uncanny X-Men as Fraction, Brubaker, and everyone else since... Claremont? ...

• At November 4, 2009, Thok wrote:

  You apparently didn't buy Secret Six this week. You are a horrible, horrible person. (Seriously, it's Ostrander writing ...

• At November 4, 2009, Dave wrote:

  Morrison never wrote Uncanny, though.

  I have to say, Strange Tales #3 was by far the weakest issue of the series. ...

• At November 4, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  (And remember, Casey wasn't hamstrung, he was strung out on coke!)

  I remember Casey's Uncanny got kind of good as he ...

• At November 4, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  I bet Chad will write about it some day. Generic banter about our feud.

• At November 4, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  And yeah, Thok, I really ought to get in on Secret Six/Suicide Squad some day. It's on the list.

• At November 4, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Morrison never wrote Uncanny, though.

  You think that was his secret?

  Working on 'X-Men' and not Uncanny?

  I remember Casey's Uncanny got kind ...

• At November 5, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  WRT Ghost Rider... I'm still scratching my head over who was behind the decision to rename Dan Ketch "Danny." ...

• At November 5, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Boy, Apes vs. Zombies could have been a thing of beauty. I'm not sure if I was turned off ...

• At November 5, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  NOT SO RANDOM THOUGHT -- "Best comic" sure doesn't mean anything when you admit to flipping a coin.

  Strange Tales #3 ...

• At November 5, 2009, Stefan Wenger wrote:

  Wow, I read so many comics this week and I totally forgot two really important ones, Assault on New Olympus, ...

• At November 5, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I've bought nothing but Marvels the last couple of years, but I haven't got any of these. And not ...

• At November 5, 2009, Tekende wrote:

  "whatever it is Chris Chua was drawing "

  Yeah, what the F was up with that? It looked like Jackson Pollock ...

• At November 5, 2009, Provolone wrote:

  I'd buy Uncanny X-Men by Jeff Parker... that would be sweet as sweet potato pie. Didn't Parker do a ...

• At November 5, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  Secret Six came out this week and I don't yet have it? What the Buddha is wrong with me...

2 Comments

• At November 4, 2009, Randy wrote:

  A sad day indeed. My condolences to his family.

• At November 5, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  To be fair to the others, he did not create the con all by himself.

Here's the next four covers! And click here for the master list of all the covers posted so far!

24 Comments

• At November 4, 2009, BRIAN wrote:

  awesome legion cover!!!!

  I suspect we'll see LSH #294 at some point.

  Cheers,

  B

• At November 4, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  I generally dislike Fabry's Preacher covers- Dillon's versions of the characters are so definitive that they always looked off to ...

• At November 4, 2009, Patrick Joseph wrote:

  That Adventure cover is the first one to come along that I wasn't instantly familiar with. I know I've seen ...

• At November 4, 2009, Thok wrote:

  This is the issue they sacrificed Lightning Lad to the electron gods of Staticclingos-7?

  They sacrificed what turned out to be ...

• At November 4, 2009, Andrew Collins wrote:

  All 4 are great choices. Totally forgot about the Preacher cover as an "iconic" one but I agree with it's ...

• At November 4, 2009, Rebis wrote:

  I love how Batgirl used to carry a purse on her hip.

• At November 4, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  I'd go for Preacher # 1.

• At November 4, 2009, Rob M wrote:

  Superman vs. Flash.

• At November 4, 2009, Dave wrote:

  Of these four, Superman/Flash is the most iconic of the covers, but all four desere to be on the list.

• At November 4, 2009, Dan Fleming wrote:

  That Preacher cover is second only to the "Meat Man" cover. Anyone who has read the series knows which ...

• At November 4, 2009, chad wrote:

  all good choices had to go with super man vs flash for it had two big guns trrying to answer ...

• At November 4, 2009, Ralph wrote:

  That´s the first time i saw that Adventure Comics cover. It´s great, though.

• At November 4, 2009, Ultimate Matt wrote:

  Superman vs the Flash. I dislike that Preacher cover because Jesse looks so sinister on it - not what his ...

• At November 4, 2009, Dan Felty wrote:

  Wow, Preacher #1 cost $2.95 in 1995? That's a pretty penny.

• At November 4, 2009, Patrick Joseph wrote:

  Dan:

  Vertigo first issues were frequently 40 pages around this time. The next issue is back to regular size and ...

• At November 4, 2009, Dan Felty wrote:

  Yeah, I remember it being long, but it's a shame the best comics are priced like it.

• At November 4, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  It was $4.25 Canadian too. It's funny how Vertigo books are cheaper here now than nearly 15 years ago!

• At November 4, 2009, Mike Blake wrote:

  Superman #199, all the way down to the finish line!

• At November 4, 2009, CriticalFel wrote:

  I think this early on the countdown, we already see how the creation of covers has changed with the years. ...

• At November 4, 2009, Jacob T. Levy wrote:

  Fabry's awesome, but somehow his covers for Preacher so turned me off that I never even tried the series while ...

• At November 4, 2009, Rene wrote:

  Dunno, I can see the appeal of both kinds of covers.

  Yes, I do feel nostalgic for the old-style "story" covers. ...

• At November 5, 2009, nikki wrote:

  Great Legion cover but I think Adventure 247 will outvote it. I worry Legion fans may be split!

• At November 5, 2009, danjack wrote:

  Preacher. Ugh.

  DFTBA

• At November 6, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Guess it takes all sorts. I love Fabry's Preacher and Hellblazer covers...