Yeesh, it only took four issues for Danny to go full-on hardened vet.

Also, I'm reading these out of order, so it's like picking up an issue of Sgt. Rock and instead of Bulldozer, Little Sure Shot, and Ice Cream Soldier; Rock was leading Hotfoot, Lefty, and Alamo Pete. Somewhere along the line, something bad had happened...From 1988, Bad Company #4, reprinting the titular serial from 1987 progs 2000 AD #509-510, written by Peter Milligan, pencils by Brett Ewins, inks by Jim McCarthy.  

On the planet Ararat, Bad Company was getting it on all sides, as the Krool's "zombie beat" was re-animating dead earth soldiers against them. (I'm sure it's just 90's techno; Grant Morrison established that ages ago!) Robot medic Wallbanger thinks it can block the frequency, but they needed equipment, so the rogue unit was forced to head for the remaining earth soldiers at Sector 8; which involves fighting through the insane Marshal Bonehead and the Skull Possee. (The extra 'e' is for...insane? That's how crazy they are!)

After a battle, their commandeered Krool transport breaks down again, near where Danny had buried his friend Malcolm, but he finds the grave empty. Mac tries to play it off as animals got the body, but Danny's pretty sure Malcolm was now a war zombie. Pointed-eared Thrax asks, why not just decapitate all the bodies before the zombie beat brings them back; but Wallbanger says that'd take about three months to get all the earther corpses...Arriving at Sector 8, the remaining regular forces are disorganized and leaderless; but also afraid of the "wild animals" of Bad Company, which Danny remembers had been his first impression of them as well, and now he was one of them.

While the Krool could have just rolled over Sector 8 now if they had known how bad off it was; reinforcements were coming: earth elite Lord Ireland, who would almost certainly try to kill Bad Company, since they knew the truth, that earth was dying. Sector 8 finds itself under siege by the Skull Possee, as the zombie beat starts; and Danny is as cool as the other side of your pillow, since all he sees is "a lot of soft skin to be burst or scorched or torn..." Damn, son.

Darn, I thought I had all of Bad Company on digital...I'm pretty sure Milligan is building up Danny as hard when in some ways he's still all marshmallow: he has far more human feelings than Kano or Thrax, who are more like robots than Wallbanger. Also this issue: more Peter Milligan, with the first two progs of "Freaks", then more street football in "The Mean Arena." "Freaks" has art by John Higgins, but the protagonist is an unlikeable, looks-obsessed cad, who gets sucked into another world of hideously ugly inhabitants--or, they're ugly to him, anyway. "The Mean Arena" starts to get rolling, as the Slayers lose another player, but per the rulebook they can ask for a volunteer from the crowd, and dear Grudd I wish the NFL would institute that immediately. (In the pre-season, that'd get viewership up!) The Slayers get a ringer, though: fabled American player Matt Tallon, long believed dead, steps in; but he has reasons of his own...(Written by Tom Tully, art by John Richardson.) Warning: if you dig up the next few issues of Bad Company, you might get to read all of "Freaks," but after this title ended, "The Mean Arena" continued in 2000 AD Showcase until that series ended, so you'd have to look overseas for the conclusion!

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Probably our last dive into Marvel's short-lived Frontier imprint here, as we previously saw Children of the Voyager and Dances with Demons, both of which would have been right at home at Vertigo. But today's book probably should've have been Heavy Metal, all the way! From 1993, Bloodseed #1, "Chapter One: Cold Blood" Script by Paul Neary, Liam Sharp, and Cam Smith; pencils by Liam Sharp, inks by Cam Smith.

All is not as it seems here, but a barbarian-type wakes up in a frozen wasteland. He doesn't remember much, except that his name was Lysander, and he had once been warrior-king of Elysium. Something has taken his memory, his kingdom, and his queen Ellissya away, but what? And how can he get them back? Sounds like time for a quest, but it's not a typical D&D fantasy setting: he finds a mysterious chamber of technology he doesn't understand, although he does get a mighty weapon...a really big wrench! From there he has an encounter with an anglerfish-like creature with a siren lure, then fights to save a telepathic pterodactyl? The pterodactyl is a friendly sort, who explains Lysander's power to heal himself and others through telekinesis (it worked to explain Superman's powers back then!) and asks him to give up his quest and come hang, since his people were going to hibernate soon, it was too damn cold. Lysander declines, but accepts some gifts: some clothes, and a "helmet of truth." The clothes include a cloak, and what appears to be a larger pelvis that he's wearing as a loincloth over his pelvis. Where form meets function, I guess?

Later, Lysander finds a sort of way station, filled with holographic guides and somewhat tawdry visions of Ellissya. Feeling sullied by that, he continues on, to a massive tower, guarded by a water creature, that is set on him by the hooded bad guy...who looks like Lysander, minus an arm! He has a little tirade, about who will be "the one true Bloodseed!"

Viewer discretion may be advised: there is way more nudity than usual in this one! They probably should've put that on the cover; it couldn't have hurt sales. And maybe even more in the second issue, where our hero meets another version of Ellissya, who seems to remember she had ruled Elysium, with him as her boy-toy consort! There are clues that they were all genetically-engineered and seeded on this world, but why...? We don't get the full picture, or the full series. The Frontier comics editorial page we mentioned before says this was going to be a four-issue mini, but may have fallen behind from the start: the two issues released were "book 1" but the rest never happened. An editorial page in one of the other Frontier books spins it as hey, cool art takes time; but this hit the stands at about the same time as the crash of the comic book market: there were just reams of books out there, with most of them probably cannibalizing their own market. The Bullpen Bulletins page this issue had a checklist, with 28 books coming out that week, and Bloodseed wasn't even on it! (Psychonauts #1 was!) Liam Sharp has done tons of stuff since, though: I thought he might've been pulled from this to his run on Incredible Hulk, but he might've done some Death's Head stuff in-between. Which I may also have grabbed, we'll see; and there was maybe one more Frontier book we'll see later. (I said no, Mortigan Goth! Although I do like that third cover...) Read more!

I have not one, but two Legends of the Dead Earth annuals next to me in the blog piles, both of which I don't think I had read before. This one falls under, I see they were trying to do something new, but I don't like it. From 1996, Superboy Annual #3, "Fathers and Suns" Written by Barbara Kesel, pencils by Anthony Williams, inks by Andy Lanning.

By now you know the premise of these annuals: in the far-flung future, as mankind spread out across the universe, earth was just a distant half-memory, but the legends and legacies of its heroic age lived on. This one starts a little closer to the beginning of that epoch, with a fanciful tale of mother earth sending its children to distant colonies, to fight boredom and bring back gold; in this case, the colony world named Aztlan. Which seems populated by miners playacting as "ancient Aztecs," but they start panicking when they lose contact with earth: they figure it was isolationists cutting them off, as opposed to a Great Disaster or such; but they weren't "raw-landers" and assumed when their machines eventually broke down they would be done for. But, they had an ace-in-the-hole they didn't know they had: Sanson, a metahuman, who had always kept his powers secret. He considers taking the mantle of a hero like Superman, but decides the colonists are going to need something bigger than a legend: a god. Making an elaborate costume, Sanson first appears to the people as Quetzalcoatl; telling them he would give them a Superman; then later Sanson pretends to have just got his powers, to inspire them to build an empire...which, to me, feels like he perhaps unintentionally enslaved them to a false religion.

Centuries later, the colonists had built themselves a pretty nice little society, although they were still ruled by the current Superman: a Superman would always choose a successor, a Superboy, who would eventually replace him. Today, Superman chose young punkass meta Quetzal for his Superboy, not just for his powers, but "...for a certain tame quality." Despite initially being wowed by the pomp and ceremony, Quetzal starts to notice things: his boss was kind of mean in training him; he meets a pretty girl, Chala, with powers that were "forbidden" for a girl; and this Superman was more than a little corrupt. After saving a small village, Superman also helps himself to the local girls, then savagely beats a priest for horning in on his protection racket. As Quetzal has more doubts, Superman warns him about making attachments, a veiled threat about Chala. (Not unlike the 90's Superboy, Quetzal's main characterization was "horny gloryhound.") On a flight to clear his head, Quetzal then meets Ral Ezhno, the previous Superman; who had been usurped by his successor, and was now protecting a small village overtaxed to keep the capitol in luxury.

Quetzal catches a slap from Superman upon his return, as the meta-games were coming up: the competetion was intended to show new powers for the glory of Quetzalcoatl and advancement of Aztlan, although they could get a bit bloody. Superboy wasn't competing in the early rounds, as Superman was keeping him in reserve "until the losers were weeded out." In a later heat, Superboy beats a local speedster, and proclaims himself the greatest...which Superman takes as a challenge, as planned. It was a set-up, and Quetzal had bit, but he makes a plan with Chala. He had powers seemingly like the 90's Superboy, but his "T.K. shield" was no match for Superman, and he catches a beating as Superman proclaims himself as Superman, Quetzalcoatl, and "your god." Also as planned, since Quetzal, Chala, and Ral use their powers together, to make an illusion of Quetzalcoatl and accuse Superman of heresy. Superman eventually figures it out, and attacks them; only to be incinerated by the real Quetzalcoatl! (Divine intervention, after we'd seen fakes twice; boo!)

In the aftermath, Quetzal resolves to stay Superman, until his two advisors Chala and Ral tell him it's time to change tags, and to serve his god and his people better than Superman had. Which I suppose he'd have to, he would know Quetzalcoatl was real. I would have preferred the heroes winning on their own; maybe Quetzalcoatl should've got top billing here. OK, I have to do a little searching here, and compare it to the list from the DC wiki. At least some of those are probably in my garage; although it may be easier to buy them again... Action Comics Annual #8 Missing? Adventures of Superman Annual #8 Missing? Aquaman Annual #2 Azrael Annual #2 Batman Annual #20 Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Annual #6 Batman: Shadow of the Bat Annual #4 Missing: Catwoman Annual #3 Detective Comics Annual #9 Flash Annual #9 in a couple weeks! Green Lantern Annual #5 Missing? Guy Gardner Annual #2 Impulse Annual #1 Justice League America Annual #10 Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #7 Missing: Legionnaires Annual #3 Power of Shazam Annual #1 Robin Annual #5 Missing: Sovereign Seven Annual #2 Missing? Starman Annual #1 Superboy Annual #3 right here! Supergirl Annual #1 Missing? Superman Annual #8 Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #5 Missing: Wonder Woman Annual #5 Read more!

We saw the 2019 crossover War of the Realms a bit ago, and recently from the same dollar bins I managed to get the main six issues of this one: from 2020, Empyre #1-6, written by Al Ewing and Dan Slott, art by Valerio Schiti. I did get a couple of variant covers; I had to upload the above John Tyler Christopher action figure one! There were like 20 covers already scanned, I think they were still missing 20 for the first issue! The action figure covers are always neat, although I rather like the propaganda poster style ones.

I suppose it isn't that surprising anymore, but this series references a lot of continuity way older than the creators, and even older than me, Avengers #89 or further back! After centuries of warfare, the Kree and Skrull empires have unified, under figurehead Emperor Dorrek VIII, better known to readers as Young Avenger Hulkling. Although there are other factors in play, the Kree and Skrulls have united against a mutual foe, the Cotati. The plant aliens had usually been seen as peaceful, and the Avengers are briefly on their side at the start of this one, swayed by Sequoia (Quoi) and his dad, the Swordsman; from the Celestial Madonna storyline way back when. Iron Man disables the Kree and Skrull war fleet, just in time for Quoi's heel-turn: the guilt leaves Iron Man feeling especially betrayed, since he had seen Quoi as "the first Avengers baby." Tony mostly spends the rest of the series like Achilles sulking in his tent--there's a literary reference for you, although I probably got it from the Tick.  

Declaring himself the "Celestial Messiah," the Cotati attack all over earth--a ton of crossover books, I know I read the Savage Avengers and X-Men at the time, both Conan and Nightcrawler were involved!--but their main goal is getting their seeds into the vibranium-infused soil around the Great Mound in Wakanda. This sets up another siege ala Infinity War, but it still works. Swordsman is portrayed as having some rivalry with the Black Panther, and I couldn't tell you if they'd ever even interacted before: this green Swordsman may or may not have been anything of the original Jacques DeQuesne, I think even his corpse had been destroyed more than once. Mantis shows up, to try and rein in Quoi (alone, no Guardians, and I'd say her character has long been far removed from the old Avengers version) but the Swordsman had been pouring poison into Quoi's ear for too long (Shakespeare reference! I'm on fire today) and he was gung-ho to kill all humans...and Kree, Skrulls, animals, all of it. (He did offer to keep the Avengers in a garden, and had put some thought into how to arrange them!)

But, my favorite bit of this one...might be a spoiler, so if you were waiting to read this one, we'll put it after the break!

In the first issue, the Cotati seemingly help (She)-Hulk regain her control and diction, but that was a lie. They had killed Jen, and took over her body! It was already green, a Cotati taking it over wouldn't turn it more green, so it was the perfect vehicle for espionage. The Cotati-Jen kicks the stuffing out of Ben, who refuses to go down: the Fantastic Four had recently taken in refugees, a Kree kid and a Skrull one, and Ben was going to give them a better life if it killed him. There's also a bit where Hulkling gets replaced--I won't say by who, it's another good bit of continuity--and it takes his husband Wiccan to point out the switch, even though the new "Hulkling" is straight-up mustache-twirling evil all of a sudden.

I hope I'm not damning with faint praise, but if you can get this for a buck an issue, you absolutely should! 

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"Elsewhere."

We finally get to the Age of Apocalypse, with a very slightly redressed version of my usual alley set!

Even though he would have a long run in Exiles, Morph is a solid representative of the AoA. I've had that figure for years, and I think this is the first time we're seeing him? 

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Everything sucks, so I should post something light and frothy; but instead we've got this:

From 1975, Tomb of Darkness #13, with maybe a Sal Buscema cover? Anyway, it took me a minute to figure out if we had blogged this one already, since we covered ToD #9 a few years back, and this issue opens with a different story with the same title: "The Man in the Tomb!" This one was from 1952's Mystic #12, with art by Bob Fujitani. A seeming execution, is instead just an elaborate initiation to the local chapter of the Knights of Mystery. (I had a conversation with my mom recently: my grandpa had been in a ton of men's clubs, like the Elks, Lions, Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes, whatever; and you don't really have that around today. I knew one guy that was a Mason, and I would'a been less surprised if he'd said he was a Martian.) But, a local mobster crashes the club meeting, 'cause his skirt thinks he oughta have "social prestige"...by joining these nerds. The Knights don't want a criminal in their club, but agree to give him the tougher initation, in the graveyard tomb. The mobster will be locked in the tomb, but can reach out and grab the key whenever: the longer he stays in, the greater his rank in the club. Or, that's what the Knights tell him, anyway: they plan on ditching him, moving their headquarters and maybe changing their name, before the mobster even gets out of there. Except, the mobster gets scared five minutes in, and fumbles the key...! (This one vaguely reminded me of the MST3K episode "Ring of Terror," which also features an initiation that goes bad, with a bunch of frat guys way too old for the roles!)

"Alone!" from 1952's Adventures into Weird Worlds #9 is a very Twilight Zone premise, with an execution here they would never have been able to pull off on TV! A spoiled actor hates his fans and the "leeches that hang off of him," and wants to be "alone...really, truly, alone!" As you might have guessed, he gets his wish, as everyone in the city seems to disappear--'seems to,' though. Everyone is still there, as he can see cars and buses moving, but not the people in them; and in a bar he can see drinks and trays moving by themselves, since he can't see the people! Like a lot of TZ-style stories, this ends pretty abruptly: you got your wish, now suck it. Well, even if he didn't lose his mind completely, he'd probably get hit by a car in short order. (Art by Ben Brown and David Gantz.)

"Stop the Presses!" was also from Mystic #12, with art by Gene Colan: a reporter is hounded by his cruel editor, until he finally brings him a juicy exclusive. There was going to be a murder, at 8 tonight...right here in this office. Somewhat surprisingly, there doesn't appear to be any moral or anything there, just vengeance.

Lastly, from 1952's Uncanny Tales #7 we meet "The Gal who Talked Too Much!" with art by Bob Brown. This was another time capsule story, from back in the day where people seemed to be burying these things for posterity like every 20 minutes; I think we've largely accepted now that our culture is crap and given up burying Furbies or Ed Hardy trucker caps or whatever. Meek local man Simon Graves is not-so-slowly losing his mind, as his wife Hilda seems physically incapable of shutting up for three consecutive seconds. As she yammers on through a local scientist's time capsule presentation, Simon finally goes off on her; and the scientist approaches him later: he had been looking for "volunteers," to live in the time capsule, as examples of humanity that would survive any nuclear war or disaster, with bottled air, food and water. The scientist hadn't had any takers, so he suggests if Simon drugged Hilda...Simon jumps at the offer, but he might not have been the only one given that offer.

I kinda liked this one! My copy's pretty beat up; I'll have to keep an eye out for a better one, if one randomly pops up. Read more!

I don't know if he's as good a sculptor as Alicia Masters, but he's faster.

I mentioned I was looking for a new copy of this one some time back, and the dollar bins did provide: from 1992, Superman Special #1, "The Sandman" Story and art by Walt Simonson.

Like we mentioned before, this special was a bit of a speed-run of the Kryptonite Nevermore storyline that ran (intermittently) from 1971's Superman #233 to #242. This version doesn't have I-Ching, but instead post-Crisis had Superman making a memorial statue for the alternate-dimension Phantom Zone criminals Zaora, Zod, and Quex-Ul: Superman had executed them in Superman #22, and still carried that guilt with him. He swears "...that I will forever be the champion of life and never its destroyer." That's pretty much as it should be, although the direct-sales version's UPC box notes "Doomsday is Coming!"

This falls into a relatively thin wedge of continuity now, although it was several years: after Superman's self-imposed exile in space, and after Jimmy Olsen had met the new Newsboy Legion, but before Clark and Lois were a couple...that might be a thinner wedge than I'd thought, since they were dating by Superman #45. If you have time to re-read that run of issues you could probably narrow it down further: Lex is wearing a black glove, so this was after he lost his hand to Kryptonite poisoning but before he 'died' of it. Anyway, exiting a storeroom at the Daily Planet and pretending to be absent-minded, Clark bumps into Lois, who was hot on the heels of a story, investigating the mysterious Cosmography Industries. Which, as luck would have it, was just in the middle of an experiment, that would go awry with a massive explosion. Superman takes off to help, closely followed by the Newsboy Legion (and their flying Whiz Wagon!) who pick up Jimmy, with Lois barging in as well. After getting caught in another massive explosion, that drives him into a pile of rock; while Superman is rescuing trapped scientists, he is interrupted by Lex Luthor arriving via helicopter, who tries to order Supes off of his property. When Supes gives him some sassback, Lex decides to show him what they had been working on there: synthesizing Kryptonite! And, he had a good-sized chunk of the original right handy...what the--?!

The Kryptonite does nothing to Superman, and he even goes so far as to nonchalently eat it. While Lois and the others don't arrive in time to see that, and Lex tells them he had just given Superman "a little snack as a gesture of thanks," Lex is seething as Superman flies away, but then notices him dip, just for a second, as he flew away. Superman shrugs off his momentary weakness, but Lex suspects there might be something there. Later that night, at the rock where Superman had been embedded, a duplicate of Superman forms out of sand, and attacks some guards at Cosmography (which should just be a smoking hole in the ground at that point...) while Clark discovers hey, his super-breath was gone. The sandman later attacks him at his home, seemingly knowing he was Clark Kent, but couldn't fly yet, and smashes itself lunging at Superman and falling out a window. Thinking the creature was pulverized, Superman leaves to investigate further; but the creature re-integrates from a pile of sand, now with heat-vision! (Long-time comics readers would've probably seen Marvel's Sandman do that many times; so it feels weird that Supes thinks it was gone!)

Luthor, after a brief interlude with an Aboriginal tracker he had brought in, sets his armored Team Luthor on the Superman double, who is eventually caught in a box for a chat: the creature wanted Superman, and Lex was more than happy to help it out. The next day, a bank robbery with heavily armed and trained goons draws out Superman, whose flight powers give out midway there! The sandman attacks Superman from an armored car; while Jimmy and the Newsboy Legion arrive: the Newsboys clobber the bank robbers in short order, while Jimmy realizes the sandman was stealing Superman's powers, and tries to run it down with the Whiz Wagon. No sale there, and Jimmy gets grabbed, but Superman then escapes in the Whiz Wagon, drawing the sandman away from Jimmy. Superman does have a plan, and luckily the sandman hadn't taken his super-speed yet, so it couldn't catch him before he got back to the Fortress of Solitude. The sandman recognizes it, as it thinks once he takes everything from Superman, it will no longer be in pain. The pain hit it every time it stole a power, and as it starts beating Supes in the Fortress, it spills how Lex had explained those powers, and it was leaving invulnerability for last, so it could enjoy beating on Supes.

With the sandman now a full-color dupe of Superman, it thinks it had beaten him unconscious; but Superman surprises it, seemingly giving it something else in a burst of pain. It sees, and then smashes, the statues of Zaora, Zod, and Quex-Ul; but is then stricken with remorse: Superman didn't kill. Panicked, it cries over the body of Superman, repeating his earlier oath.

Later, back at Lexcorp, Lex is feeling pretty smug, up until the moment he finds Superman in his office. Superman explains, while he couldn't prove anything, he didn't need to: the sandman had been feeling the pain of becoming Superman, but when it had everything, it sacrificed itself to save Superman. Which, inadvertently, saved Lex (and the world) from a Superman with no guilt or conscience; although Lex doesn't see it that way. 

This was a 50-page story, but the last couple of pages feel a bit rushed, like they were running out of room. Which in the special is taken up by pin-up pages, from some big names, like Frank Miller and Todd McFarlane! I feel like this issue might be overshadowed by the Death of Superman; but it's still great.

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