Random Happenstance

I've always enjoyed Bongo Comics when I get them, and I had heard good things about this run. And it is just savage. From 1994, Radioactive Man #679 (#5) "Who Washes the Washmen's Infinite Secrets of Legendary Crossover Knight Wars?" Script and layouts by Steve Vance, finishes by Tim Bavington, additional inks by Bill Morrison.

Radioactive Man, of course, is Bart Simpson's favorite superhero; and the book is in the signature Matt Groening style. This was the fifth issue of six, but it's numbered like it had been running since the 1950's. Although the cover, proclaiming the impending death of a "second banana," is more of a Silver Age look; this particular issue is more eighties, taking the absolute piss out of hallowed classics Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, and Batman: Year One. You'll recognize the bits, but Vance also does a nice job skewering the politics of that era.

It may help that Radioactive Man himself is a bit dim, even for someone with a lightning-bolt shaped hunk of metal lodged in his head. (His secret identity, Claude Kane, was doomed to never appear hatless; even though hats were well out of fashion by this point!) Along with blindly supporting President Reagan, he's also not thrilled to see his alternate-earth counterparts; although I do like the designations "Beta-Earth" and "Substitute Earth"! The second bananas set up some Crisis and Legends bits as well.

I won't tell which second banana doesn't make it, although Radioactive Man even suggests they'll probably be back someday. Meanwhile, I know I need to get the very McFarlane-looking #1000, but I also think I have some other Radioactive Man comics around somewhere...