tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-287034972024-03-18T19:52:33.226-07:00Random HappenstanceComics, toys, pop culture nonsense. And maybe the kids and bitey dog around here somewhere too.googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.comBlogger5151125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-23259302486559315382024-03-18T05:00:00.000-07:002024-03-18T05:00:00.349-07:00Between the Fly, Blue Devil, and this; 1986 was a great year for practical special effects.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHo3xNSyoaWJSp4OPElbfrtA4vuTaDKZtl_MQqf5_gc_ZcMLMpIr9cm_OgGhb1FTfILv_MLqfKQGct3Yb9ZceRs__w_Ue4FdOxWV91Cpe87wpP0K_48mS1tIdLJyWKtWIjqiaciF6g4MjDrEOO_uQy5sAUyy4sZppwk0VDfc7duAsLStUmv73iXw/s2693/Scan_20240316.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2693" data-original-width="1863" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHo3xNSyoaWJSp4OPElbfrtA4vuTaDKZtl_MQqf5_gc_ZcMLMpIr9cm_OgGhb1FTfILv_MLqfKQGct3Yb9ZceRs__w_Ue4FdOxWV91Cpe87wpP0K_48mS1tIdLJyWKtWIjqiaciF6g4MjDrEOO_uQy5sAUyy4sZppwk0VDfc7duAsLStUmv73iXw/s400/Scan_20240316.jpg" /></a></div>
I don't think I loved this issue at first glance, but it might be winning me over. From 1986, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/41011/#234661">The Thing #31</a>, "Devil Dinosaur: the Movie!" Written by Mike Carlin, breakdowns by Ron Wilson, finishes by Kim DeMulder.
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The Thing's sparring match with bald wrassler/copyright infringer Mr. Clean gets broken up, by an official from the National Safety Commission, who seems like an officious toad but has a point: Ben gets thrown into what would have been the crowd, and probably would've taken out several spectators. Still, the official says there's a workaround; a transparent shell, that they can set up in two weeks; which means Ben might have some time off. Troublingly, Ben has a dizzy spell, while taking some razzing from young Vance Astro (prior to his New Warriors days) as he packs to go visit Sharon Ventura, who was filming a movie out in the Pacific. Even Ben isn't sure what their relationship was, but she is happy to see him, and had several friends, so how bad could it be? Although, he might change his tune, when a dinosaur suddenly appears!
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Ben punches out "Devil Dinosaur," and immediately realizes his error: it was a special effect for the movie! Ben is contrite, but Sharon is the one to get yelled at: although the FX guy claims it's like fifty grand worth of work, she brushes it off as a few hours work, whatever. Still, maybe Ben didn't have to leap into action for every little thing...The next day, Sharon is suited up ala "Moon Girl," and picked up by prop pterodactyls; and Ben rushes to save her from a fall--ruining a shot, as she would've hit a hidden airbag. Pouting on the beach, Sharon visits him to let him know it was okay, but Ben is momentarily distracted by something out in the water. Nah, couldn't be!
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Later, the sets are mysteriously leveled, forcing the crew to pull an all-nighter to rebuild them: Ben thinks that should maybe be looked into, but his help isn't exactly welcome. The next day, as Sharon prepares for a shot, Ben sequesters himself in a trailer, hits the fridge, and resolves to ignore whatever was going on. Not even Godzilla himself was going to get him out there--hey, wait a minute! This was the Doctor Demonicus <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Godzilla_(Earth-616)#Mutated">mutated Godzilla</a>, that showed up a few times after his Marvel series. While Sharon and the other actresses flee, the FX guy sacrifices Devil, sending him by remote to interrupt the attacking not-Zilla, who loses interest and heads back into the ocean after smashing his foe. Regardless, the producers call it: they were pulling out, and they'll sell the footage to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripley%27s_Believe_It_or_Not!">Ripley's</a> to recoup their losses.<div><br /></div><div>Sharon initially tells Ben it was nothing, but has to admit yeah, that was not business as usual today. Still, she isn't quite ready to start seeing Ben; which isn't surprising, since he brought up his fantasy girl <a href="https://random-happenstance.blogspot.com/2021/10/blog-post_18.html">Tarianna</a>. "You look exactly like my fantasy girl" is a red flag, Ben!
<span class="fullpost"></span></div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-61437846029059461882024-03-15T05:00:00.000-07:002024-03-15T05:00:00.335-07:00It doesn't seem sporting to put "End of the Line" on part 2 of 3.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17Cb5gIyQYIGr_WAOccZAdxxKb6iZ2IrzCNMbWQCCuJMOyzhFkl1jj1MSWXa0rWgjIdqTiOjy3N8k_BLOC9Nsdu-lJtCt84rNJLpIC-T06LAQ6SD5G4wsrn9CQ61N4_sEGkhn-TZ4jztUmfDqOj3nYGSNjeaY91x850i6hwCjlG02BL-a6gk1Ow/s2181/Scan_20240311%20%285%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2181" data-original-width="1949" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17Cb5gIyQYIGr_WAOccZAdxxKb6iZ2IrzCNMbWQCCuJMOyzhFkl1jj1MSWXa0rWgjIdqTiOjy3N8k_BLOC9Nsdu-lJtCt84rNJLpIC-T06LAQ6SD5G4wsrn9CQ61N4_sEGkhn-TZ4jztUmfDqOj3nYGSNjeaY91x850i6hwCjlG02BL-a6gk1Ow/s400/Scan_20240311%20%285%29.jpg" /></a></div>
From 1993, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/97173/">Punisher War Zone #18</a>, "The Jericho Syndrome, part 2 of 3" Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, pencils by Hugh Haynes, inks by Rodney Ramos.
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Frank, Microchip, and Inuit corporate troubleshooter Jack Oonuk are trying to stop blackmailer and saboteur "the Architect," who targets dams and bridges with engineering know-how. He had been targeting the "Pan Allied" corporation, which was caving and going to pay a four billion dollar ransom, to keep him from destroying a suspension bridge: Frank knows they think that will get him out of their hair, but it would only encourage more extortion. While Frank had intended to just plant a tracer and follow the Architect, he's spotted, and the whole thing goes south: Jack gets shot a couple times, albeit saved by Kevlar. The thugs get away with the bearer bonds, while Frank, Micro, and Jack have to stop "vibrational units" from shaking the bridge apart, which is a bit sci-fi for the title but probably the only way to do that thing without a lot of explosives.
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While his crew is pleased with their haul, the Architect doesn't give a crap: he really, really wanted to blow that bridge; and takes out his frustration by stabbing one of his own guys with...I thought it was a compass, but it appeared to be pointy on both ends? An architect tool I don't recognize. He quickly finds a new target, that would get back at both Pan Allied and Jack: an oil rig, in the Northwestern Territories. <div><br /></div><div>I had to go back and look over <a href="https://www.comics.org/series/4470/covers/">War Zone covers</a>, since while this was perfectly cromulent Punisher stuff, I would've fallen off the book just a couple months prior; with the conclusion of the "Psychoville" brainwashing storyline in <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/97171/">#16</a>. Even with Mike McKone art, that was five issues and a bit long; but I absolutely loved the Rosalie Carbone/seven hitmen in <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/97162/">#7</a>-<a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/97166/">11</a>, which was mostly Chuck Dixon/John Romita Jr, and I wanna say came out on a six-week schedule? Every time we got a new issue, some friends and I would read it, but had to say "Previously, on Punisher War Zone..." before we started reading. It was fun at the time!<span class="fullpost"></span></div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-52368143740079483632024-03-14T05:00:00.000-07:002024-03-14T05:00:00.138-07:00Can you really share a Fortress of Solitude?<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5gFJ_4uIH8O4tUm4q_RiwdHIU6syOWkKED_95orMxKttQvTmwzZnqb-f3CkAYqL0BPA0TXPD74IMHKmpCZ8Hiq6WEMnawyRfnveDVUeIwKc9hSUiekHjge9Guqan1_fwOmHeh0zroxvn5RWfGHITcZM4BfJLJ9-ccIqzu41NunAAnO7vrQLdQQ/s1911/Scan_20240311%20%282%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="1911" data-original-width="1890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5gFJ_4uIH8O4tUm4q_RiwdHIU6syOWkKED_95orMxKttQvTmwzZnqb-f3CkAYqL0BPA0TXPD74IMHKmpCZ8Hiq6WEMnawyRfnveDVUeIwKc9hSUiekHjge9Guqan1_fwOmHeh0zroxvn5RWfGHITcZM4BfJLJ9-ccIqzu41NunAAnO7vrQLdQQ/s400/Scan_20240311%20%282%29.jpg"/></a></div>
I actually think that bothered me on occasion, in the CW <strong>Supergirl</strong> show, where Kara would use her cousin's Fortress of Solitude like she owned the place, especially in episodes where Superman wasn't going to show up. That's probably on me, since I wouldn't be comfortable just letting myself into my sister's house and using her stuff. I certainly wouldn't build my own door to her place, but I would be pissed if she kept a laser gun to destroy me! From 1971, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/24334/">Action Comics #402</a>, "The Feud of the Titans!" Written by Leo Dorfman (credited as Geoff Browne), pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Murphy Anderson.
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Superman and Supergirl are destroying U.N. outlawed weapons in the disentegration pit in the Fortress, when they suddenly turn on each other, accusing each other of keeping a weapon to use against them. Supergirl puts her own entrance into the Fortress, and splits the whole place with an impenetratable barrier of super-force. I think I saw that in a episode of <strong>I Love Lucy</strong>, or maybe <strong>Farscape</strong>: my side, your side; my side, your side! The fight predictably escalates when Superman starts smashing some of Supergirl's trophies that she left on his side: stop touching my stuff! Make me!
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Also this issue: the cover story, "This Hostage Must Die!" Written by Leo Dorfman, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Murphy Anderson. Superman is the hostage here, seemingly powerless against a tribe of "Navarro" Indians, who were furious about the government taking a plateau on their land, "Montezuma's Castle," for a rocket base. "Red Hawk" was a top astro-physicist, which might explain how he's able to disable Superman; but there's more going than meets the eye. The depiction of Native Americans is probably a bit dated, but they come across well: I feel like DC had a few covers like that around that time.
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<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-86103462990483796892024-03-13T05:00:00.001-07:002024-03-13T05:41:15.730-07:00"Snitch."<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiVWpy5oqqwf_57rU7flW4C_LddA3jEbddeCaAD04tChusCypa5fRkJjUP1jtec4lWyuwfbXq2l8KyPySl-qd743T2ywRLxzksh7FINTS5NI-VrW5abxMTD4f7fFXxpufnGRwUGi3pW75uDae_jZxVOgWoPFzCn5VYYjRiKSz0kvH-_QbUw3acWw/s695/snitch1.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="695" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiVWpy5oqqwf_57rU7flW4C_LddA3jEbddeCaAD04tChusCypa5fRkJjUP1jtec4lWyuwfbXq2l8KyPySl-qd743T2ywRLxzksh7FINTS5NI-VrW5abxMTD4f7fFXxpufnGRwUGi3pW75uDae_jZxVOgWoPFzCn5VYYjRiKSz0kvH-_QbUw3acWw/s400/snitch1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiww1l0_Fl3-kevVK6wPDMG2EP_VYRrKt3rp-1aKeomRiCaCNRKDrWSfoc0sNN14uJr_gF8SZcUpRtzpOtfE4YyuSmDihIFEOEoCDf9dKwRkVqUK_ve5La11buF4336dTa-BmlzmUuH37_fPdaGPb_PazPWJsbn9eKPgdywWVt9bplOt8sJM0l2cQ/s693/snitch2.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="693" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiww1l0_Fl3-kevVK6wPDMG2EP_VYRrKt3rp-1aKeomRiCaCNRKDrWSfoc0sNN14uJr_gF8SZcUpRtzpOtfE4YyuSmDihIFEOEoCDf9dKwRkVqUK_ve5La11buF4336dTa-BmlzmUuH37_fPdaGPb_PazPWJsbn9eKPgdywWVt9bplOt8sJM0l2cQ/s400/snitch2.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZmm7nG3Bv_zFv70QFHBBkDIDiVpe6IFspxqFmN5grhbYTcGqPsr_ARgSd0u97z540jiBYaAsVCEWoeQcRP_byyeYUVGQlTJz6l9xDfwsoGSmrf2Ww3B7O012gIUGdwQHB9x2V0BNi0jO0l0zZKsTPtEtE_mdK07CSv9Ks8sRkPeRTbpRHRyX7w/s695/snitch3.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="642" data-original-width="695" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZmm7nG3Bv_zFv70QFHBBkDIDiVpe6IFspxqFmN5grhbYTcGqPsr_ARgSd0u97z540jiBYaAsVCEWoeQcRP_byyeYUVGQlTJz6l9xDfwsoGSmrf2Ww3B7O012gIUGdwQHB9x2V0BNi0jO0l0zZKsTPtEtE_mdK07CSv9Ks8sRkPeRTbpRHRyX7w/s400/snitch3.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAEEBEqfFYELGtzOhAGhixanxU3Kvd_8s6oSh8BJvPCeTXqBylfxoyLHAxLdhkk7vdkQueyYLoKwSJL3mZa5mVM0LJIvMy1L-8MNviTu-6EcXmBH8barJbOG8wr-XT5QcuTgXu0ShsAHVQN0fPprqQ6xTXZDl8lANl1PBoTopmYHuj19_2bemzag/s696/snitch4.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="696" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAEEBEqfFYELGtzOhAGhixanxU3Kvd_8s6oSh8BJvPCeTXqBylfxoyLHAxLdhkk7vdkQueyYLoKwSJL3mZa5mVM0LJIvMy1L-8MNviTu-6EcXmBH8barJbOG8wr-XT5QcuTgXu0ShsAHVQN0fPprqQ6xTXZDl8lANl1PBoTopmYHuj19_2bemzag/s400/snitch4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm2m3T0GU3iGWR4RyKJVV57JcYVH9tYLSBOc_gtiARFPKaQ7EBr9HvkopTUWVLmQ04Wd2WU2fKc8fMP0_qyX2Qsy7E4Eo5w4SbQDzClVMlWR-fC2dAO4RsNewwDDZbw4fyOCdPGpXMdWeeaxMFp-VOcUY0bcL_PW3yqk9guZOtYpQNLvvfjf9AcQ/s711/snitch5.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="711" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm2m3T0GU3iGWR4RyKJVV57JcYVH9tYLSBOc_gtiARFPKaQ7EBr9HvkopTUWVLmQ04Wd2WU2fKc8fMP0_qyX2Qsy7E4Eo5w4SbQDzClVMlWR-fC2dAO4RsNewwDDZbw4fyOCdPGpXMdWeeaxMFp-VOcUY0bcL_PW3yqk9guZOtYpQNLvvfjf9AcQ/s400/snitch5.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNofL7O_VMDBhqj4C2SPzD06yLJUHGzavJ2-p0HRZyomIDpLPBEAEPsLwMRme02eKtAiw6xfr28pAwtxiO5-xc2yi4jOtsSFQJjZexTZ84qjEl3NgvkYecbaT0V3xUCgScO-rCSxZ6rPnYaZcKhlDEHufoqdv6vFg8ZciCCdOVC70ZBp98hr847w/s713/snitch6.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="713" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNofL7O_VMDBhqj4C2SPzD06yLJUHGzavJ2-p0HRZyomIDpLPBEAEPsLwMRme02eKtAiw6xfr28pAwtxiO5-xc2yi4jOtsSFQJjZexTZ84qjEl3NgvkYecbaT0V3xUCgScO-rCSxZ6rPnYaZcKhlDEHufoqdv6vFg8ZciCCdOVC70ZBp98hr847w/s400/snitch6.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvjTrGbw0jUeVFVxqAAOczPN5PfpMInt12cFfaBB7o1hnxxBvMr8fM4XWZLYCv4uxVJjjTDeMIlLvJrjJSkf9sfVm9d2Sl7Ybgv5WpqPfVWfenmB19jOXzyvChRd2KbZK7Ehdx8X7NoMBhjAYJ57GSc7w4ewbNzdZmT2BCL48RXHduJckeO_QkKA/s722/snitch7.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvjTrGbw0jUeVFVxqAAOczPN5PfpMInt12cFfaBB7o1hnxxBvMr8fM4XWZLYCv4uxVJjjTDeMIlLvJrjJSkf9sfVm9d2Sl7Ybgv5WpqPfVWfenmB19jOXzyvChRd2KbZK7Ehdx8X7NoMBhjAYJ57GSc7w4ewbNzdZmT2BCL48RXHduJckeO_QkKA/s400/snitch7.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkPxnNAuC_nx7PBmw61tZx9chn5qeNovQwOKiPYJgwEpsk4n6674tXn2YReSIkahzb9Ce96FlRi25BWYvvciDksC4hiKJbJUt0LJwbgIL8gImqVPJjCGU5mtenFULHJFrG-ubHQOaETuPYmKv6F8RCo8uR6WIqDjo-vEWAvVmXiaXJIXOPfPpwQ/s695/snitch8.JPG" style="display: block; 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It's entirely possible that everything Blur says is just a high-pitched whine, allruntogetherlikethis; and the Squadron can maybe understand him like 30% of the time. Still, he wasn't the brains of the operation; so most of them probably weren't super interested in anything he had to say. Also, there's apparently a band called "Zip Tang," I thought that was trademarked by the Road Runner! And "Gotta go, big meeting" is from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3441810/">Some Assembly Required</a>, a moderately amusing Netflix kids' show my Youngest liked, set in a toy factory. <div><br /></div><div>Also, today we continue with the notion that the Squadron had certain utility positions they were interested in filling; which of course line up with classic Justice Leaguers. I'm considering now if there's a Marvel character that would be close to Firestorm, as that would kind of be the cut-off...But, we've got the most recent Ant-Man and Namor figures: the Namor seems a bit unnecessary, as I feel like I just got his movie figure. <span class="fullpost"></span></div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-58875015420897634582024-03-12T05:00:00.000-07:002024-03-12T05:00:00.135-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLTAiFtgINwCcHn2d_m7QgypjH3hptgVJx2-zzhXLMHCJarM0ISbz8w-wHpfgJaF7KBidfWh_ai476IgA4rqFCOcMhCeFIr_xxR_RrlNLpt2MPcbIbsyMQecP9Xofg8fdbCNbO_RBti363r53m7u9tykXadxM4bCmzdAu9GzSdbDgI6dZLbK4vUg/s1837/Scan_20240225%20%2817%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1763" data-original-width="1837" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLTAiFtgINwCcHn2d_m7QgypjH3hptgVJx2-zzhXLMHCJarM0ISbz8w-wHpfgJaF7KBidfWh_ai476IgA4rqFCOcMhCeFIr_xxR_RrlNLpt2MPcbIbsyMQecP9Xofg8fdbCNbO_RBti363r53m7u9tykXadxM4bCmzdAu9GzSdbDgI6dZLbK4vUg/s400/Scan_20240225%20%2817%29.jpg"/></a></div>
Back when we checked out the <a href="https://random-happenstance.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-free-comic-apparently-didnt-seal.html">Superman/Radio Shack comic</a>, I mentioned the <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/2108250/">Captain America and the Campbell Kids</a> giveaway, about energy conservation. Here's another educational/promotional giveaway one with Cap, that I'm not sure I had read before: from 1987 (or thereabouts!) <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/2411739/">Captain America Meets the Asthma Monster!</a> Written by Louise Simonson, pencils by Alex Saviuk, inks by Fred Fredericks.
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A young boy dreams of being a hero like Captain America, but figures with his asthma he would probably spend the rest of his life doing nothing; until he meets another kid who had her asthma under control. Their medications protect them, from the sudden attack of the Asthma Monster; who isn't a figurative monster but a guy in a suit with an "aller gun" making people sick, under the rationale if he couldn't breathe, nobody else should either. They call Cap's hotline, and he was in the neighborhood, so...Cap even explains, he himself had asthma when he was a kid. (Cap had a lotta problems as a kid, many of them probably from living conditions at the time.)
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The kids help bring down the Asthma Monster, which is an important message in empathy as well: just because something bad happened to you, doesn't mean you want it to happen to somebody else. Still, the Asthma Monster promises to return, and oddly enough, he does! There would be a sequel in <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/1131221/cover/4/">1989</a>, with Mark Bagley art. These were harmless and helpful little larks, unlike recent <a href="https://www.cbr.com/marvel-comics-strange-distribution/#nfl-pro-action-and-the-amazing-spider-man">promotional comics</a>: I swear there was an <strong>Avengers/Halliburton</strong> one recently...(OK, maybe not; but I did see this <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/956610/">Avengers/Visa</a> one, that probably ends with Peter Parker getting denied a card.)
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-78911787411287810532024-03-11T05:00:00.000-07:002024-03-11T05:00:00.132-07:00You might not get every little nuance with a random issue of this, but it looks good doing it. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuJVHaXTZA1OYCQhSUr8x90sVnWMNryKstdjlmBMI-KqEAkN5vHbraEMQCAXxAAcGxiNZmBnm1_lqGfuZcAat8hVgjRoduzLMsx6n_X5Gr0-eIcB4fFvEZqCh8Z7VTns93TOghDjgGsX2KXkzB_GQMB0GMejaQDD7mBpS96fleFcrDg5whqk-e_g/s3065/Scan_20240305%20%286%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3065" data-original-width="1998" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuJVHaXTZA1OYCQhSUr8x90sVnWMNryKstdjlmBMI-KqEAkN5vHbraEMQCAXxAAcGxiNZmBnm1_lqGfuZcAat8hVgjRoduzLMsx6n_X5Gr0-eIcB4fFvEZqCh8Z7VTns93TOghDjgGsX2KXkzB_GQMB0GMejaQDD7mBpS96fleFcrDg5whqk-e_g/s400/Scan_20240305%20%286%29.jpg" /></a></div>
We saw Reuben <a href="https://random-happenstance.blogspot.com/2012/11/with-little-luck-i-can-run-this-every.html">lamenting low voter turn-out a couple election cycles back</a>, and we've mentioned the <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/346783/#551526">Hard Times</a> trade a few times; but I just liked this cover from a quarter bin: from 1985, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/40634/">American Flagg! #26</a>, "Mad Dogs & Englishmen, conclusion" Story and art by Howard Chaykin, letters by Ken Bruzenak, colors by Alex Wald.
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This was wrapping up a four-parter with Reuben visiting England, part of a goodwill tour promoting a cease-fire in their war with Ireland. Several conspiracies of varying degrees of complexity seem to conflict with each other, ranging from robot replacements to garden-variety xenophobia and racism. Reuben eventually breaks the case, but loses the girl in the end, at least for now, as he gets on a plane back to Chicago...
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...where, somewhat unusually, the back-up feature tied-in, and had a surprising name as well! "The People's Choice" Written by Alan Moore, art by Don Lomax. This was chapter six of a serial that would wrap up with the <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/40752/">main story next month</a>, as some kind of unexplained sexual disaster has refugees fleeing Kansas...and the curious later rushing there to see! Amanda "Mandy" Krieger spends most of this chapter trying to rehearse what she was going to say to Reuben when he got back: that this totally wasn't her fault, it isn't even as bad as they're saying, that's taken out of context, everything's fine...how are you? <div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/261006?o=4">Loose Collector</a> has an <strong>American Flagg!</strong>--and Raul the Cat!--action figure coming; and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted. Trying to pay down my cards, though; and I just got hit for a spendy Mezco One: 12 just now...
<span class="fullpost"></span></div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-11829255124143422152024-03-08T05:00:00.000-08:002024-03-08T05:00:00.154-08:00I know he'd seen all the horrors of war, but I still think Rock would've screamed opening that thing. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjubDp0oJotT1b1krQD3DWJwTlUbNEvUDekwFb_t81BTLX2t24CytF-15nNry1plI0tavAUKJsvSAwgV2U0zl4eZsLWIFyhu15HVwxAQbnF6vVKF1cr4LP9satqk_11btzPi95SQf9eyBdj5Z714sfCXZFjkOb5tYqJ6r5Yje1wBnG97Wb0gEI1Nw/s1800/Scan_20240305%20%282%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1431" data-original-width="1800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjubDp0oJotT1b1krQD3DWJwTlUbNEvUDekwFb_t81BTLX2t24CytF-15nNry1plI0tavAUKJsvSAwgV2U0zl4eZsLWIFyhu15HVwxAQbnF6vVKF1cr4LP9satqk_11btzPi95SQf9eyBdj5Z714sfCXZFjkOb5tYqJ6r5Yje1wBnG97Wb0gEI1Nw/s400/Scan_20240305%20%282%29.jpg"/></a></div>
So I stayed up entirely too late the other night reading a bunch of Garth Ennis's <a href="https://www.comics.org/series/83450/covers/">War Stories</a>, but I don't have scans of those, and for some this would be more terrifying anyway. From 1983, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/37387/?">Sgt. Rock #376</a>, "The Dummy, part 2" Written by Bob Kanigher, art by Frank Redondo.
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<strong>Sgt. Rock</strong> didn't traditionally have a lot of continuity or two-parters, and the first part of this one was in <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/35094/">#349</a>, over two years prior! A replacement in Easy Company, a young <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1918_Browning_Automatic_Rifle">"B.A.R. man"</a> as Rock describes him, never spoke, except through his ventriloquist dummy. This was novel, and probably not super, super creepy. Only like moderately creepy. When cut off, Easy couldn't get to him, but with the Dummy seemingly coaching him, he held his position against a Nazi advance--"the river was choked with <strong>enemy dead</strong>"--before dying. Rock left the Dummy on his soldier's grave, even as it silently implores the Sarge to take him with them. Some time later, a couple new recruits have a package that had been forwarded for Rock: the returning Dummy!
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The two new guys flip for him, and the lucky Carrot Top wins. He is then immediately killed, but the Dummy hadn't been too thrilled with his shave, so wasn't too broken up about that. The other new guy takes him, then gets killed by a boobytrap. Rock intended to leave the Dummy, as every guy that's carried it has <strong>"bought it,"</strong> but the voice of the Dummy appears to haunt him: hey, it wasn't his fault...right? Rock relents and takes the Dummy, and they immediately get ambushed, and Rock goes under the ice of a frozen lake. Rock manages to break through the ice--apparently with his fists, not smashing the Dummy's head on the ice--then is slammed back by an explosion, dropping the Dummy, who may or may not scream as it falls to a watery grave. Rock is pulled out by Bulldozer, and the war goes on...
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This one doesn't make a helluva lot of sense: Rock acts like he had to take the Dummy, until he doesn't, and it just kinda ends; but it's got a great vibe. It was also reprinted in <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/39054/#225450">Best of DC #52</a> digest, so you may have seen it there.
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-5225857786577021962024-03-07T05:00:00.000-08:002024-03-07T05:00:00.126-08:00He's secretly undercover, she's secretly seeing someone else, now another one's secretly alive? Where's 'trust' on the emotional spectrum?<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzz-wO8r3OOYwwuqvH_LxbIXjNvd77iGberxnhFdd9C3lhOmfmgb3X5Z8uwVnzvPJ1LEaPrDoFEzIIgW2VLUlHG6mCr6gX3ACiV0-rBldg3A5bF8uWgQ55h20JrH3PgrSZCYBBcfMARK9rmQ7H6z3xIqVFvs9Lb-GQgfTVjlarwt7Hl1tIT3Ab_w/s2073/Scan_20240225%20%2812%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2073" data-original-width="1886" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzz-wO8r3OOYwwuqvH_LxbIXjNvd77iGberxnhFdd9C3lhOmfmgb3X5Z8uwVnzvPJ1LEaPrDoFEzIIgW2VLUlHG6mCr6gX3ACiV0-rBldg3A5bF8uWgQ55h20JrH3PgrSZCYBBcfMARK9rmQ7H6z3xIqVFvs9Lb-GQgfTVjlarwt7Hl1tIT3Ab_w/s400/Scan_20240225%20%2812%29.jpg"/></a></div>
In the DCU alien races probably see earthlings as trouble, mavericks and rule-breakers. I wonder if they don't also see us as emotionally stunted, to boot. From 2013, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/1155399/">Green Lantern Annual #2</a>, "Lights Out, part five: the Source" Written by Robert Venditti, pencils by Sean Chan, inks by Jon Sibal and Walden Wong.
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This was the end of another Lantern book crossover, and bits of it feel like homages even if they were established DC lore: the bad guy, Relic, was from the universe before this one, like Galactus was. And the <a href="https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Source_Wall">Source Wall</a> is involved: I hadda look up if it predated <strong>Star Trek's</strong> <a href="https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Galactic_barrier">galactic barrier</a>: it does not, although it does seem nicer. While he was trying to wipe out the assorted ring-bearers, Relic might have a point: their assorted usages of emotionally-charged light was draining the universe's supply of it; no one had considered it might be a finite resource. Well, except maybe <a href="https://groups.google.com/g/alt.quotations/c/uR9nny2yB3Q?pli=1">David Byrne</a>: I always thought he said there was a finite amount of music in the universe, but he might have said jokes instead.
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I don't know when this happened, but somewhere there was a retcon making Guy Gardner and John Stewart much closer pals than I remember; John is pissed at Guy for defecting to the Red Lanterns, and still pissed when he finds Guy had gone undercover there. Kyle had been captured by Relic, and no one knew where they were, but Carol can sense him through the Star Sapphire and the power of love; which Hal takes with the emotional maturity that you'd expect. Kilowog saying "Awkward" is funny; but kinda feel like he'd want them to keep on mission there. At the Source Wall, Relic experiments with White Lantern Kyle, in the hopes of...I don't know, cracking him open like an egg and somehow refilling the universe's emotional reservoir. The remaining assorted Lantern corps show up, and in the fight attempt to shove Relic into the Source Wall, where he would become part of it: Kyle realizes he gains power by fighting for life, and charges up, dragging himself and Relic in.
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With Relic defeated, the Greens were down to like 2% power, and Hal seemingly resigns himself to death: Guy tells him the Reds wouldn't help, maybe not out of any particular beef with them, they just weren't a helpful lot. I can't recall if the Pinks could make constructs, since Hal tells Carol to go rather than watch them die in space. John had planned ahead though, and had the Indigo Lanterns to teleport them home, which after the destruction of Oa, was now Mogo! Complete with rebuilt power battery: John had asked the Indigos to help with that as well; but they also inadvertently teleported Guy with the Reds, seemingly leaving him in danger. (I think Guy was fine, and possibly more at home with the Reds at that point.) The moment of triumph is further stepped on by some Greens quitting, since they thought using the power would drain the universe again, and didn't want in on that.
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Back at the Source Wall, the New Guardians are studying Relic, when Kyle returns: a big deal, since that was supposedly impossible, although I feel like Darkseid and possibly Metron had done it four or five times before. The emotional entities of the various spectrums had sacrificed themselves, but Kyle didn't remember anything else. One Guardian tries to look in Kyle's memories but seemingly can't; although it would be more fun if that wasn't Lantern-stuff but just Kyle's artist-head that was too much for him. (Don't look in Kyle's head without permission, he has to clean up a few things first...) The Guardians proclaim his return had to be kept secret...for reasons; I don't know. Probably to wreck his relationship with Carol, no doubt.
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-30659421520978183872024-03-06T05:00:00.000-08:002024-03-06T05:00:00.145-08:00"Schlubby."
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I'm usually further ahead than this--in fact, I have other storylines with a couple strips done--but this Squadron one I'm barely ahead of the chains. I don't have it super planned out, I'm kind of seeing where it goes. In fact, I didn't think the other Squadron members were going to show up here; Blur may have had his own ideas. His own terrible ideas. <div><br /></div><div>I also don't like how "Super-Skrull" has become a generic; for me there's one proper Super-Skrull, <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Kl%27rt_(Earth-616)">Kl'rt</a>, with the Fantastic Four powers. He's had a storied career, a jobber's jobber, to use the wrestling parlance. Then there's <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Paibok_(Earth-616)">Paibok the 'Power Skrull,'</a> who pretty obviously seems like they needed a new Skrull for the role of "total dick" because Kl'rt had almost managed to chip out some character development over the years. Anyway, here we've got the Marvel Select Super-Skrull, who was pretty cheap at the <a href="https://www.disneystore.com/super-skrull-action-figure-by-diamond-select-toys-the-marvels-461015239319.html?CMP=KNC-DSSGoogle&efc=179006">Disney Store</a> still as I type this. Didn't love the alternate head on that one, but maybe it'll do something for you.
<span class="fullpost"></span></div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-73448209926770397632024-03-05T05:00:00.000-08:002024-03-05T05:00:00.244-08:00"I can't feed on the powerless, when my cup's already overfilled..." <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm5C6hvuUpZ6Eiv17aeLnd1mf-b58kW-R06nYdPyzkgSKtwggYSpgEQY6oGSMhF_ztskolvCej4DkjiW5wnH-Dmevv1-yYDcBaeQSctGp9Yh8Big_01mFiPi9LyN-Oopu8QYMIka9rWpXYwKPZY9HYcntqcNLHb6IShuD6VHpAglM1-KNyDuAitw/s3052/Scan_20240225%20%2811%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3052" data-original-width="1962" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm5C6hvuUpZ6Eiv17aeLnd1mf-b58kW-R06nYdPyzkgSKtwggYSpgEQY6oGSMhF_ztskolvCej4DkjiW5wnH-Dmevv1-yYDcBaeQSctGp9Yh8Big_01mFiPi9LyN-Oopu8QYMIka9rWpXYwKPZY9HYcntqcNLHb6IShuD6VHpAglM1-KNyDuAitw/s400/Scan_20240225%20%2811%29.jpg" /></a></div>
This was an "Age of Ultron Aftermath," but not what I thought it was going to be, and it leads right into another event because of course it does. From 2013, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/1131447/">Hunger #1</a>, written by Joshua Hale Fialkov, art by Leonard Kirk.
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I no longer have an innate sense of when crossovers were or in what order, since I thought this was going to be after the Galactus appearances, with Ultron, in <a href="https://random-happenstance.blogspot.com/2024/01/geez-norrin-homer-simpson-has-to-go.html">Infinity Countdown</a>, but this was five years earlier? Really? So, I wasn't expecting the lead for this one to be Rick Jones--the Rick Jones from the Ultimate universe. Boo. Rick Jones has cosmic power here, from a Watcher, which in the Ultimate U. isn't a big bald guy, but a really judgey-sounding fancy pillar. Rick didn't seem like he was getting a lot in the way of training or even basic instructions, but "abandons his post" to go to earth for a burger (those Ultimate kids love their burgers!) which he doesn't get to eat, as he's teleported to the middle of the Kree/Chitauri War. Which is interrupted by the arrival of the Gah Lak Tus swarm.
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The Watcher doesn't so much guide Rick, as much as tell him how momentous everything is; particularly when Galactus from the 616-proper Marvel Universe arrives, is swarmed by, and then merges with Gah Lak Tus! Directing the swarm as a herald, Galactus hungers...Rick would get an upgrade a bit further in the series, but that feels like they just wanted to get that character into the Ultimate Universe before wrapping it up; since this leads directly into <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/1156353/">Cataclysm</a>. Of course, the Ultimate U. is being rebooted again now, so... <div><br /></div><div> Anyway, I went into this expecting something else, so that's on me.
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VUb450Alpps?si=zq-0uRFREjf0E489" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </div><div><br /></div><div>
<span class="fullpost">There was a sequence that reminded me of a bit I like a lot better, in Baron and Rude's <a href="https://random-happenstance.blogspot.com/2007/02/if-horse-racing-is-sport-of-kings-then.html">Nexus: Alien Justice</a>, where the Merk "phases out" Horatio as Nexus, to give aliens a shot at the job: he later complains, the demon he gave powers to took them and the costume and hadn't been seen since! </span></div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-9310065130573727022024-03-04T05:00:00.000-08:002024-03-04T05:00:00.139-08:00Barry runs up a beam of light, and that's not even the most unbelievable thing this issue.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPjSq6RAEFGPMlynTUuYYewQWnrthrRoLPXtI0yOS7sGSfHcAu0fpns62-pMGMuPQ07TMO9xRKSHJRRG31KJ1a6SQNUho0KBoGieUfwySlwRNkTMHMhJklVKujJoa_K059gI9MW1qKzRMJ_tKJ9PdOqTjlTnrQKFcv96ZAeZ0Vg5466y4ge_WlZw/s3043/Scan_20240225%20%284%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="3043" data-original-width="2003" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPjSq6RAEFGPMlynTUuYYewQWnrthrRoLPXtI0yOS7sGSfHcAu0fpns62-pMGMuPQ07TMO9xRKSHJRRG31KJ1a6SQNUho0KBoGieUfwySlwRNkTMHMhJklVKujJoa_K059gI9MW1qKzRMJ_tKJ9PdOqTjlTnrQKFcv96ZAeZ0Vg5466y4ge_WlZw/s400/Scan_20240225%20%284%29.jpg"/></a></div>
My big hang-up was why would a master of disguise wear that outfit, but that might just be me. From 1980, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/34816/#208209">Flash #291</a>, "The Saber-Tooth is a very Deadly Beast!" Written by Cary Bates, art by Don Heck.
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I feel like everything in this issue is Bates maybe trying to do things that hadn't been done before in this long-running title, so it seems like trying to reinvent the wheel over and over, while trying to roll at the same time. This opens with Fiona Webb, about to be murdered by Barry Allen: <a href="https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Beverly_Lewis_(New_Earth)">'Fiona' wasn't her real name</a>, and she hadn't been around long; this was probably the end of her first storyline. The fake-Barry was Ross Malverk, a mobster Fiona had worked for but testified against; she had started a new life in witness protection, but had been afraid of Barry in error. The Flash finds himself in a bind, though: with 'Barry' wanted for attempted murder, he didn't have an alibi, since he'd been Flash at the time. He's able to get some help from King Faraday, after saving his helicopter after a bazooka hit, in a really improbable vibrate-and-run-on-dust-particles trick.
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There are two hitmen, seemingly subcontractors, who shoot a lot of bazooka shells over Central City: I feel like those weren't super-common. Malverk gives himself up, to get protection from Saber-Tooth, who he had previously double-crossed; Barry lets himself be seen in public to draw him out. I don't think Saber-Tooth usually wore that outfit: he says he lifted it from a tailor shop, because why wouldn't a tailor shop display...that? He then tries to kill "Malverk" with, I don't know, a superball firebomb? It seems like the generic of a Green Goblin pumpkin bomb. Flash then appears, and Saber-Tooth nearly escapes in a jetpack with optional chemical smokescreen; but unfortunately that time of night was empty, so Flash could just run around punching until he got him...look, I don't buy it either, but it was the last page, so...Fiona forgives, and is happy to see Barry: she'd be his new love interest, after the death of Iris, for most of the rest of the series.
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Also this issue: A Firestorm short, with George Perez art!...that gives away the game in the title, "The Hyena Laughs Last!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by George Perez, inks by Bob Smith. Ronnie Raymond has got Professor Stein a job interview, and off the sauce: for quite a while, Stein didn't get to remember what happened to them when they formed Firestorm, so he had a bunch of unexplained absences and mental lapses; but was starting to recover. Ronnie gets several Ditko-era <strong>Spider-Man</strong> plot points, as his main antagonist <a href="https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Clifford_Carmichael_(New_Earth)">Cliff Carmichael</a> gives him some crap: they were a reversal of the Peter Parker/Flash Thompson dynamic, as Cliff was the brain, Ronnie the jock. Ronnie also goes with his girlfriend Doreen to pick up her sister Summer at the airport, and she seems like she's not going to be a ray of sunshine. (Way moreso than I would've guessed!)
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Stein gets a new job, although I don't think it was as a professor, which seems a waste; then stops himself from hitting the bar to celebrate. But, he sees someone jumping from building to building, and realizes he recognizes them subconsciously from his time as Firestorm. It's the Hyena! In the last panel of the issue; so maybe they should've saved this title for next time?
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-23731364676332407662024-03-01T05:00:00.000-08:002024-03-01T05:00:00.134-08:00A mirror, a zombie-Frankenstein type, a girl in distress; I don't think the interior stories have any of those!<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoOhj3risERnyGcugwf96_uZUPKtg7wNzfa625k64TUY4OvMIEHY4vPjJRmicemf0dQhgP4FKHtxfSl6t6fN0bdEw2Yq9WeKWR4uGbFDLAdFfXdgNJ_rspgJOui4jpK6b2KF7gz86j1jqPbABlVBEKbyf45BSwrC2A4gGBmJ3wlTU5ZDCu497qHw/s3056/Scan_20240121%20%2811%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="3056" data-original-width="1993" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoOhj3risERnyGcugwf96_uZUPKtg7wNzfa625k64TUY4OvMIEHY4vPjJRmicemf0dQhgP4FKHtxfSl6t6fN0bdEw2Yq9WeKWR4uGbFDLAdFfXdgNJ_rspgJOui4jpK6b2KF7gz86j1jqPbABlVBEKbyf45BSwrC2A4gGBmJ3wlTU5ZDCu497qHw/s400/Scan_20240121%20%2811%29.jpg"/></a></div>
Reckon horror comics live or die (or un-die...) on the strength of their covers even moreso than other comics; and this one's got a pretty good Gil Kane/Tom Palmer one: from 1975, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/76168/?">Tomb of Darkness #14</a>. But how are the stories?
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"Vampire" is a 1951 <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/8874/#81318">Marvel Tales</a> story with George Klein art: a man gets the chair, for killing his brother, but he had to, to save him from becoming a vampire, because he caught a vampire bat that turned into a hot vampire woman, that wanted his brother instead of just drinking his blood...? Feels like that kind of rejection would sting.
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"The Trap" is time-travelling nonsense from <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/9441/#85256">Strange Tales #5</a> in 1952; which feels like a weaker <strong>Twilight Zone</strong> story. Then "Wish You Were Here!" from <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/13716/#113396">Marvel Tales #159</a> is another one where an artist gains power and completely abuses it. (I feel like that was done <a href="https://random-happenstance.blogspot.com/2023/09/did-i-miss-shark-week-again-i-never-know.html">more than once</a>, but they probably also did ones where the writer messed up, so the artists shouldn't feel picked on!) "The Strange Power of Mr. Dunn" is early John Romita art, from 1957's <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/174140/#685364">Astonishing #57</a>, in which a circus's star attraction is a giant, who's really a scientist who used his own formula to make himself big and help out his pal the owner for his kindness. He'll shrink himself later, but for now, their act was a hit!
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Not the best crop of reprints this time around, the cover got me! And I don't think any of the interior stories tie into it in the slightest.
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-9759725999793944222024-02-29T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-29T05:00:00.128-08:00
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For reasons that I can't recall now, I had been trying to be more mindful about sleep--get to bed on time, that sort of thing--and it's done the opposite of help, I slept better just winging it. So why not stay up late...and read a comic with problems that were problems almost 40 years ago, that are still problems today. Ooh, that'll help. From 1987, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/43287/#242738">Blue Beetle #16</a>, "Anywhere I Hang My Head is Home!" Written by Len Wein, pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Danny Bulanadi.
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<div><br /></div><div>Blue Beetle's working the case of the "skid-row slasher," who seems to be preying on Chicago's homeless. Beetle had encountered him after a burglary of an experimental leukemia cure, and he had lost it while fleeing when he tripped over a homeless guy sleeping in a doorway. The slasher made his escape in the elevated train--gee, if only Beetle had something to give chase, like a bug-shaped airship--seriously, he could've beat him to the next terminal! Still, the bad guy escalated from burglary to murder <em>really</em> quickly, trying to get the homeless to tell him where the cure was, or the guy he tripped over at least. </div><div><br /></div><div>
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Beetle meets several of Chicago's homeless, including an older woman who is brave, articulate, and independent: he's momentarily concerned for her, but figures she can take care of herself. So, of course she's the next to die. Putting that aside, the homeless are treated better here than in a lot of comics of the time: they aren't thrilled about their circumstances, but aren't whiners about it, either. Despite having his own company, Beetle doesn't really have any answers for them: he wasn't Wayne-rich, and would be poorer shortly.
<span class="fullpost"></span></div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-59072604199050282982024-02-28T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-28T05:00:00.133-08:00"Training." <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg80q1b42LCE47i0TeqQKH91f38YPl_zBBns0tNimTcttFomCBNbZ30ORE9gcfXiTDpCsP0fnJaktxvv0y_zq7Hf2j3-dNEuCj5fdPqBQB-prhqPMIHUAe7pg2tzHpotJJ7MrkWXtgKTSx39zpD2rH237mYURHi_oFG1CIyYHTRQ46R5XHRPqoURg/s723/training1.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="723" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg80q1b42LCE47i0TeqQKH91f38YPl_zBBns0tNimTcttFomCBNbZ30ORE9gcfXiTDpCsP0fnJaktxvv0y_zq7Hf2j3-dNEuCj5fdPqBQB-prhqPMIHUAe7pg2tzHpotJJ7MrkWXtgKTSx39zpD2rH237mYURHi_oFG1CIyYHTRQ46R5XHRPqoURg/s400/training1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSeEYDRZYG1aw0uQf1B5_PkOFoNSryuirui54dt0yz9nbMYx-GgrGYkSMwtGzlZnT1D3xqO_2BD2D8d4yedbZOZA0rhv0c2Yi0yEwWVmoUVAgJh5-lGBsgTcYk58yN87MZBvx5j9q7LMqv6foKPyd9gX30vuLNx_UZ2TxsJxOuppr4VPqQW74zmA/s717/training2.JPG" style="display: block; 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Huh, it <em>is</em> training camp season for baseball types! Maybe you'll luck out and not get <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10110341-mlbpa-executive-director-calls-out-mlbs-see-through-pants-amid-uniform-controversy">see-through pants</a>. <div><br /></div><div>I thought about it for about three seconds, and of course it was Peter David on dialogue, for <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/45203/">Secret Origins #32</a>, featuring the Justice League of America, and a sequence where Hal Jordan tries a few exclamations before settling on "Great Guardians!" I will occasionally yell "sweet Smurfberry crunch" in exasperation, but probably not as often as...other words. Like Ralphie and my own kids, Talos is probably exposed to profanity on a near-constant basis, although in Talos's case I suspect it's directed at him at least sometimes. </div><div><br /></div><div>Also, this helpful post points out that <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/standplaatskrk.pl/post/3kmafkrwqo42r">yeet is the opposite of yoink</a>, which might help you: you yoink something off of somebody else's plate, you yeet something out a window. If yeet had been in use back in what, 2005, when the Sentry yeets Carnage into the sun; that would've absolutely been the end of the character. <span class="fullpost"></span></div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-66757273855157865332024-02-27T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-27T05:00:00.145-08:00...when do we ever see Vic handcuff anybody? Feels like a Spirit cover. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW4dCd5SGnIVsEx0q8BC3OfIy8TSkfDuZOjavKE5UINiB4sLUZLMRsUfq24ae7IZpegJi8bN2_WdJSxlhFI2RhgBXsl-2aisFEoBGA0L8ItDEHd01jIoL-8eXjk5yJHFxSvL5H1aDRFse6g8R1z9azELcGj7sz8wXxcZDkvs4Ayu8xMXTVIHyc4w/s3056/Scan_20240120.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3056" data-original-width="1998" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW4dCd5SGnIVsEx0q8BC3OfIy8TSkfDuZOjavKE5UINiB4sLUZLMRsUfq24ae7IZpegJi8bN2_WdJSxlhFI2RhgBXsl-2aisFEoBGA0L8ItDEHd01jIoL-8eXjk5yJHFxSvL5H1aDRFse6g8R1z9azELcGj7sz8wXxcZDkvs4Ayu8xMXTVIHyc4w/s400/Scan_20240120.jpg" /></a></div>
I am unusually ahead in posts, as I type this; meaning I'll probably slack off again any minute now; but this maybe came up on <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/ctopley.bsky.social/post/3kft5q6ky3c2t">BlueSky</a> not too long ago, and I just so happen to have a spare copy handy! From 1989, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/45960/#252411">the Question #26</a>, "Riddles" Written by Denny O'Neil, pencils by Bill Wray, inks by Malcolm Jones III. <div><br /></div><div>I didn't read this new off the racks, so I'm trying to put it in historical context, a bit: this issue came out February 28, 1989: thirty-five years ago, tomorrow! <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_(1989_film)">Batman</a> wouldn't yet have to be referred to as "Batman '89," since it wouldn't be widely released until June 23. And although I read it first, this issue predates Neil Gaiman and Bernie Mireault's "When is a Door" from the <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/47234/">Secret Origins Special</a>. But at this point, I think the Riddler, had very much lost his mojo. A lot of the Riddler's angrier, more murder-y tendencies from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gorshin">Frank Gorshin</a> version in the TV show, were being folded into the Joker, leaving the Riddler...with what? There had also already been a few stories where the Riddler's well-established <em>modus operandi</em> wasn't showboating or grandstanding, or a means to obfuscate the real target of a crime; but rather a sickness, a compulsion, and one he found impossible to resist. His riddles...had become a joke.
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Case in point: in jail, Eddie Nygma is visited, not by the Caped Crusader, but by Commissioner Gordon. Who's figured out his riddle, which we don't hear, but it doesn't matter: the arresting officer didn't read Eddie his rights, so they're kicking him loose, because he's not worth the effort to prosecute. Gordon's trying to be kind, but tells Eddie he needs to quit: he was "a minor-leaguer with a gimmick...a small time has-been." Not even worth Batman's time, and he was only going to get himself hurt. (Gordon is also puffing away on his pipe like crazy, that seems like a lot of smoke! That would be phased out in a few years as well. I've never smoked a pipe, but I wish I had one of my grandpa's old ones; it'd make me look like I was thinking or something...)
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Meanwhile, the Christmas season is a busy one in Hub City for the Question, as he beats up a pusher Santa and then a carjacker that tries to rob Vic Sage. Later, his mentor Tot lectures him for not taking enough care of himself, but Vic points out there's like one good cop in that part of the state, so he was kinda busy. He promptly collapses shortly thereafter. Elsewhere, Eddie was on a bus, riding through the snowy countryside, chatting with a fellow passenger: a woman who introduces herself as Sphinx Scromulski. Well, that's the name she used to strip under, anyway; but of course Eddie loves it. She asks if he wants in on something, showing him a fair-sized gun...(That looks like an Uzi, which was somewhat ubiquitous in action stories of the era!)
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In his Volkswagon, Vic complains he didn't faint, while Tot tells him he absolutely did, so he's driving him to a cabin in the Hampshires until he heals up. Vic doesn't want to leave Hub, less because of duty, but because Myra was still in a coma: Tot points out, there wasn't anything he could do about that. Tot's plan then hits a snag, since he didn't gas up Vic's car before they took off. Not ideal, but at least they can catch a bus to the next town, so they won't freeze to death. Yay? Tot advises, they'll just have to make the best of whatever's available, just in time for Sphinx to start robbing the passengers, after she guns one down for trying to scold her back to her seat. Sphinx forces the driver to make a detour, and the bus is stuck in short order, but that's perfect for what she had in mind. Gotta say, while it doesn't seem like a lotta risk, robbing a passenger bus to Hub City doesn't seem like a high-value target.
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About an hour's walk away, across an old bridge, was a small town, with food and a hotel: Sphinx tells the passengers, the Riddler will ask them a riddle, and if they get it right, they could stroll to safety. And if they get it wrong...she guns the first contestant down, and asks for a volunteer, then picks a guy; but Vic masks up, to try and "outsmart 'em." He's able to keep talking long enough to distract them by not having a face, and knock the gun from Sphinx's hands.
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Sphinx makes a break for it, but falls through a rotted board in the old bridge, into the icy river. Riddler, Vic, and Tot continue their philosophical discussion by a garbage can fire; and Vic wonders what to do with him: it was Christmas, after all. Maybe let him loose if he could answer a riddle...? </div><div><br /></div><div>After this and the <strong>Secret Origins Special</strong>, I think that was it for Riddler until his comeback in Milligan and Dwyer's <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/48278/#260575">Dark Knight, Dark City</a>, which made Eddie more violent and insane again. Well, it worked for him. Also, in both this and the <strong>Secret Origins Special</strong>, the Riddler seems to have fallen into the same trap as Dick Grayson but not weathered it as well: where Batman was portrayed as basically an unchanging 29, while the Riddler and Robin both appear to have aged like 15 years! I wondered before, if we've never seen the Question face a game-shape, formidable Riddler; what would that be like? Or has the Question already seen right through Eddie, and would the results be largely the same...?
<span class="fullpost"></span></div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-30072439918425800912024-02-26T05:00:00.001-08:002024-02-26T05:00:00.131-08:00The Infinity Gauntlet + Daddy issues = a problem that'll probably sort itself out.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXR0mexKqzJ6VGIE5rpHNm8jys1Ha8pBjLOygKNYfXfpCBfQrFREevoYVVOjzR_3rGfFMHa1t0exsxnkbZdbJz3GF9xeflxYXOUEiFQtsgetcIU02jAKaVQGOqPS2XrPS6s6oiIananF1QgP3H3y9-qSlv14glp8gBpxlU710lr3_4zuJAnEikGQ/s2132/Scan_20240121%20%2812%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2132" data-original-width="1975" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXR0mexKqzJ6VGIE5rpHNm8jys1Ha8pBjLOygKNYfXfpCBfQrFREevoYVVOjzR_3rGfFMHa1t0exsxnkbZdbJz3GF9xeflxYXOUEiFQtsgetcIU02jAKaVQGOqPS2XrPS6s6oiIananF1QgP3H3y9-qSlv14glp8gBpxlU710lr3_4zuJAnEikGQ/s400/Scan_20240121%20%2812%29.jpg"/></a></div>
From 2015, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/1484977/">What If? Infinity Dark Reign #1</a>, "What If? the Green Goblin stole the Infinity Gauntlet?" Written by Joshua Williamson, art by Goran Sudzuka. <div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrt6EeNJo3v86RT0Z6NmA55khUMl8M0I9gr6EH6NVffZMLFL6ezX9RqM4VO03P0rEWUplAeN9nU3AkQpuF9PM41SPFRDJgzDWIR_LIni4cC-QbmO4zFZobT2Aas6K3XuGp4GwGx-aOMgFhH2biOY8OGEBt-O9xG9C7q38MwcMqtbVielqvZxc4kw/s2414/Scan_20240121%20%2813%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2414" data-original-width="1931" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrt6EeNJo3v86RT0Z6NmA55khUMl8M0I9gr6EH6NVffZMLFL6ezX9RqM4VO03P0rEWUplAeN9nU3AkQpuF9PM41SPFRDJgzDWIR_LIni4cC-QbmO4zFZobT2Aas6K3XuGp4GwGx-aOMgFhH2biOY8OGEBt-O9xG9C7q38MwcMqtbVielqvZxc4kw/s400/Scan_20240121%20%2813%29.jpg"/></a></div> Ambrose Osborn is about to lay a whuppin' on young (and disobedient) Norman, when he's unexpectedly transported to the future, and the middle of the big fight towards the end of <strong>Siege</strong>. Which I know I have, but I'm not positive I've actually read? I know Norman goes off the rails pretty hard there, but here he's getting things under control, like taking down the Sentry with the Infinity Gauntlet! Captain America points out, maybe a lunatic like Norman shouldn't have that, but the assorted heroes are wiped out and Norman's Dark Avengers sent home, so Norman can have some time with his dad. Who maybe should've believed in him more: his kid grew up to be God! A petulant, fallible God, but still. Ambrose isn't overly impressed with Norman's tyranny, and that's before he shows him his greatest work...of art: the death of Gwen Stacy, a moment Spider-Man is locked in, forever. </div><div><br /></div><div>
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Since that doesn't bring dad on board, Norman uses the Gauntlet to change his mind, turning him into a sycophantic yes-man. But, when they return to Norman's tower, the Dark Avengers are dead, slaughtered by Thanos. Norman knows Thanos can't touch him while he has the Gauntlet, but Thanos might think he can get in his head: Daddy's never going to love you, even with the Gauntlet...it maybe doesn't play out soon enough, and Norman melts Thanos. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ambrose is proud of Norman, but when pressed "Why?" says it's because he's his son. Norman feels he should be proud of his accomplishments, and wipes him out of the timeline. It takes Norman a moment too long to realize, maybe he shouldn't have retroactively killed his dad, as he fades from existence, leaving the Gauntlet floating empty in space...
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The <a href="https://mst3k.fandom.com/wiki/MST3K_1101_-_Reptilicus">Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode Reptilicus</a> features the line "A fire in an aquarium? Eh, that'll sort itself out." Which is pretty much what happens here? <span class="fullpost"></span>
</div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-11572207779303744412024-02-23T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-23T05:00:00.133-08:00Feel like there's a style guide for this.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirFRIqxQ7mpZCJjC_S77UAICdyqW-k1cGvdNWFrHCJIV4aKCb0cZRs8ESePl3gkB_d-tNmj-CSxCDqnWQMjOAiqLHqG2SDEUZuqW2a7Lmd7efoL5uNls2SBNQeqf_h3D7HwuuEl8dLAgHhWa42TZpdj7PzjbsDWaQi7mRfNhn3At_fL7BAjm5M6w/s2499/Scan_20240221.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2499" data-original-width="1841" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirFRIqxQ7mpZCJjC_S77UAICdyqW-k1cGvdNWFrHCJIV4aKCb0cZRs8ESePl3gkB_d-tNmj-CSxCDqnWQMjOAiqLHqG2SDEUZuqW2a7Lmd7efoL5uNls2SBNQeqf_h3D7HwuuEl8dLAgHhWa42TZpdj7PzjbsDWaQi7mRfNhn3At_fL7BAjm5M6w/s400/Scan_20240221.jpg"/></a></div>
I've had a copy of <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/33220/?">Marvel Team-Up #79</a> sitting next to my computer for a bit, but I'm trying to talk myself out of ordering a Red Sonja figure! Better blog this issue instead; you probably haven't seen it, anyway. From 1985, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/86680/#381438">Red Sonja #7</a>, "Harvest!" Written by Bill Mantlo, art by Rudy Nebres.
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I'm not sure exactly where in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyborian_Age">Hyborian Age</a> today's book is set: "the savage steppes" is mentioned, so maybe Hyrkania? I ask, because the bad guys in this one are Mongols--not Mongol-like, but pretty much just an invading Mongol horde; and the king of the besieged city is a tsar. I don't think those terms were <em>never</em> used in Marvel's Conan books, but rarely: either Mantlo might not have written a lot of these and not been familiar with the usual terminology, or this was set further away from Conan's usual stomping grounds (a sizeable area!) to set it a bit apart. Anyway, Sonja and her companions Galon and Achmal join the defense of a doomed city, surrounded and starving; although the tsar swears the only weapon that can save them is their wheat. Gasp! <a href="https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Quadrotriticale">Quadrotriticale!</a> Um, no.
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Like the majority of Sonja's companions, Galon is pining over her, but also knows that's not gonna happen. The captain of the tsar's guard also shoots his shot, but Sonja tells him she couldn't possibly date someone who was so about to die, which is for her letting him down easy? She thinks the tsar is insane, their position indefensible, and the situation pretty hopeless; and that's before the locals sink into cannibalism. Sonja finally opts to split, but the captain points out they'd never get through the horde; so she confronts the tsar, who seems to be hording grain for himself, but also seems younger and more together than before. Sonja still stabs him. But the tsar, even as he bleeds out, chides them for placing all their faith in steel, as he casts a spell, creating wheat soldiers that attack the Mongols. Stabbing them didn't do much, so the Mongols resort to burning the wheat-men, and are caught up in the blaze as well.
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As they ride away, Achmal points out the dead Mongols were going to make great fertilizer, and their next harvest would probably be bountiful. Assuming it's not all murderous wheat-men, I guess. Weird day for Sonja.
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-16726712788514619052024-02-22T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-22T05:32:37.123-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnp-4FVtJL_4kOU88hWG0L0CLd5rNf4kbpCQm8QnlmJhCrjdxsYDcaNfm_q1zYetIDvLx_345xxg2G9gXE2JKhzKXN21pcrL31ErIrF1auefe-saIDN5duCQiT1Oi8ofYAOwY-yA7RjgHCkcrjlclMteI_zp_0LsPBI5Qp_-DvlLUZNyoqUhKUQ/s2580/Scan_20240215.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2580" data-original-width="1850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnp-4FVtJL_4kOU88hWG0L0CLd5rNf4kbpCQm8QnlmJhCrjdxsYDcaNfm_q1zYetIDvLx_345xxg2G9gXE2JKhzKXN21pcrL31ErIrF1auefe-saIDN5duCQiT1Oi8ofYAOwY-yA7RjgHCkcrjlclMteI_zp_0LsPBI5Qp_-DvlLUZNyoqUhKUQ/s400/Scan_20240215.jpg"/></a></div>
I'm mildly surprised I don't have more of a soft-spot for the Inhumans, since they appeared in some of the first instances of continuity I noticed in the Marvel U: from 1984, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/36994/">Avengers Annual #12</a>, "Moonrise" Written by Bill Mantlo, breakdowns by Butch Guice, finishes by Rick Magyar.
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City on the moon--how did it get there? The Avengers are called in front of the National Security Council, who are giving the Fantastic Four the stinkeye, for helping the Inhumans move their city Attilan to the moon; in <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/36191/?">Fantastic Four #240</a>, one of the first regular issues I read of that book! While the FF vouches for the Inhumans, the government is not trying to hear that. It's mildly surprising they aren't <em>more</em> pissed, but this was before every little thing would be justified by yelling "national security." Couple other things: I don't know when they lost it--maybe the <a href="https://www.comics.org/series/3657/covers/">Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D.</a> series--but I miss the old, boxy S.H.I.E.L.D. space platform; which lost Attilan's flight over Africa, possibly over Wakanda. Reed recaps the Inhumans history, and explains how they were being poisoned by man's pollution, then offers to go to the moon to open up formal diplomatic relations; but since this is their comic, duh, that's gonna be the Avengers' job.
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It's a pretty solid roster, and Cap and Wanda are pretty happy to see Quicksilver, whose wife Crystal had recently given birth to Luna. While the Inhumans' royals are a bit weird, everyone's getting along well, although there's a weird side trip to pay respects to Black Bolt's brother, Maximus--usually known as "the Mad"--in state, in a glass coffin. Maximus had betrayed the Inhumans to the Enclave--the scientists that built Adam Warlock! Then he turned on them, but was killed driving them off. But Lockjaw, sniffing the coffin, notices "an <strong>impossible</strong> scent," and later Medusa confides in Wanda that Black Bolt had been inexplicably distant of late...Later that night, "Black Bolt" visits "Maximus," and speaks!
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Cap gets a message from S.H.I.E.L.D. that someone is launching moon rocks at earth, and Thor has to fly into action to stop them. Tensions rise, until Black Bolt signals attack; which the Inhumans go along with, since he <em>was</em> the king, right? Quicksilver sides with them, attacking Captain Marvel; the Avengers make a pretty poor showing until Cap starts to turn the tide, by finally getting his shield out of Lockjaw's bite! A steamed She-Hulk was about to pop Black Bolt one: this was early in her career, and she impulsively forgot, if Black Bolt spoke, he could probably blow a good chunk off the moon. So it's surprising when instead, he whines at her: of course, he was really Maximus. Lockjaw leads the heroes to free Black Bolt, who remains silent, so it's hard to tell how pissed he was; and Black Bolt quickly takes down the Enclave and the Alpha Primitives they were using as slaves. (They <strong>were</strong> slaves: the <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Alpha_Primitives">Alpha Primitives</a> really drive a stake through the heart of any likeability the Inhumans have.) The Inhumans promise peaceful relations in the future; and lived fairly quietly on the moon for at least a decade or two thereafter? I feel like the next time I would see them in a comic would be <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/48855/cover/4/">New Warriors #6</a> in 1990, but that can't be right...
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No take! Only throw!
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-22074897137616289712024-02-21T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-21T05:00:00.301-08:00"Expansion." <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm5mj8JlzfkpxTrXcv-x8O7UpNSjJkHAXWiWeMp8YHS9WJWSKcMXukqiNMfn65W49gNYi27da8AXmbk5LGhAcPiJXUrIwzQF0lHIvtGNOZbtLdAi29ulQemXkOajfjxTMTD_y8u_bbKn7Rwu3OyO_wBpx9-DjxwLbSD4UiL-wtv8MC4d5VskuMWA/s690/expansion1.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm5mj8JlzfkpxTrXcv-x8O7UpNSjJkHAXWiWeMp8YHS9WJWSKcMXukqiNMfn65W49gNYi27da8AXmbk5LGhAcPiJXUrIwzQF0lHIvtGNOZbtLdAi29ulQemXkOajfjxTMTD_y8u_bbKn7Rwu3OyO_wBpx9-DjxwLbSD4UiL-wtv8MC4d5VskuMWA/s400/expansion1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZreW8i_OCG0QM7yRWwihH5OpTSJYxHmEM14GzgIWFRAJ36mtZEs4zEtNjaddbKos0KZtriDTlDhKyRhhT_Fcr4WjivFFKg4cho77uATq7ul8JIGaNg72mq_eRCy4k0E_LdC5izQsNggF5hPspcIsVFcMEnr2X5M6_VsBst3MPFyPd46RfPuMuTQ/s697/expansion2.JPG" style="display: block; 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I know I haven't read every <strong>Squadron Supreme</strong> story, but while I've seen a few times where the Skrull is mentioned giving the future Doctor Spectrum his Power Prism; I think there's been some that allude to the Skrull serving a stint on the team, like some Gumby-looking alien sourpuss on some other team--hey! Yeah, it's a nod to the Martian Manhunter, but I don't think "<a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Sk%27ym%27x_(Earth-712)">Skymax</a>" or the Skrullian Skymaster has made enough appearances or got enough page time to ever have been given much characterization. In classic Squadron continuity, the Skrulls were largely extinct, so he might've been the last of his race; very DC-traditional. We're playing pretty loose with continuity ourselves, since like I said, I don't even know how many Squadrons or Squadron-derivatives are on 616-earth lately. <div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.fiction-food.com/2015/12/choco-sandwich-cookies-martian.html#:~:text=DC%20Comics'%20J'onn%20J,Smallville)%2C%20and%20video%20games.">Chocos</a> are of course J'onn J'onzz's cookie of choice, although in the Giffen/DeMatteis <strong>Justice League</strong> issues establishing his vice, it was simply Oreos at first. <a href="https://www.instacart.com/landing?product_id=23591025&retailer_id=200&utm_term=pbi-0&utm_campaign=kroger-original-chocolate-sandwich-cookies---14.3-oz_fred-meyer&utm_source=instacart_google&utm_medium=shopping_free_listing&utm_content=productid-23591025_retailerid=200&region_id=3857610639">Kaleidos</a> are also real; a semi-local store brand, allegedly pretty good? If you were to buy a ton of cookies to taste-test, I suppose. </div><div><br /></div><div>Power Princess rattles off the "utility positions" they were looking to fill for the Squadron: usually, their "magic chick" was <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Arcanna_Jones_(Earth-712)">Arcanna</a>, who of course is based on Zatanna. Satana isn't based on her, and aside from the similarity of their names, is she a good fit? The Princess thinks so, possibly because she wants a drinking buddy. Poor Machine Man has been conscripted for the Red Tornado slot: I don't recollect the Squadron usually having a robot member, except maybe Tom Thumb's helpers. Also, MM's purple finish still looks sharp, but I almost wish Hasbro would knock out a red-finish version, like in his <a href="https://www.comics.org/series/2878/covers/">limited series</a>, set in the far-off future of...um, four years ago? </div><div><br /></div><div>Oh, and should Nick have known about Talos's past? Enh, time for more <strong>Secret Invasion</strong> complaining: that show made it seem like not only did Nick not do a great job, but the Skrulls might have carried him, for years? Like they did all the spying and Nick got the credit and the rep.<span class="fullpost"></span></div>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-90024482943023369022024-02-20T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-20T05:00:00.395-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpsxOyo9GSrRUHNTTGcDzIreeq97yD-XVZEUukdwm-alKJcwIIpiSA2tvR242QGxdMg5dMaW-_Ubg8uvGY_Vg4hQNxE_Ejz4CG_UAUDgfG7yEP3qqGDLiuhanoAxBIsczPSjJw56JP4yq6VR4lutjljrxEk_2Xe2k9c7MVmIDls3fSwBcAMmfZpA/s2958/Scan_20240214.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2958" data-original-width="1935" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpsxOyo9GSrRUHNTTGcDzIreeq97yD-XVZEUukdwm-alKJcwIIpiSA2tvR242QGxdMg5dMaW-_Ubg8uvGY_Vg4hQNxE_Ejz4CG_UAUDgfG7yEP3qqGDLiuhanoAxBIsczPSjJw56JP4yq6VR4lutjljrxEk_2Xe2k9c7MVmIDls3fSwBcAMmfZpA/s400/Scan_20240214.jpg"/></a></div>
Some time back we took a look at <a href="https://random-happenstance.blogspot.com/2014/11/tv-has-pilots-comics-have-random-events_25.html">Madame X #1</a>, part of a DC event referencing National Comics, which was the company's earlier name. Today we get the same sort of thing from Marvel, formerly Timely: from 2009, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/648356/">USA Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1</a>, written by John Arcudi, art by Steve Ellis.
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We've mentioned WWII hero the Destroyer <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/ctopley.bsky.social/post/3kefobiwexk2f">before</a>, but aside from him working behind enemy lines, I forget his deal; and there may have been conflicting versions over the years. One thing remains consistent: he hates him some Nazis, as he blows up a trainload of them, saving only a reporter. The reporter was German, but not a Nazi, and while terrified was brave enough to try and warn some soldiers that they were about to get murdered: he tells the Destroyer, he can't really see the difference between them. Somehow, the Destroyer accepts that, but takes the reporter along on an elaborate plan, to steal a train and ram it into a concentration camp.
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The Destroyer shows the reporter the truth about what was happening in his country, and the reporter realizes why the Destroyer wears the odd striped 'circus' pants: he had been a POW at some point. I don't know if the rationale for the pants had been established before, but it works. Also this issue: a reprint of the Stan Lee Destroyer story from 1941's <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/1936/#25795">All-Winners Comics #3</a>, "The Secret Tunnel of Death!" Surprisingly high body count for a Stan Lee story there. (Art maybe by Chad Grothkopf and John Forte.)
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-71269958963807046372024-02-19T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-19T05:00:00.267-08:00Needle drop! Tired, obvious needle drop, but sure. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHiwiKLHWSQdQTDdY4_dUhi50meg3-xhgAVP_NmN6227XsiHxL99VOOW-ibeB7xlEfZljKbwHu8u13bVxos1DR4OTBKn00aJ0NhVH8hA1StJigL-QE0kEm4yE8IxtWJ4i4WV1jA8sL4u-kNXThJnilhQY3Pt_p-LH4KY0GyiRCOp11Onyt5weJg/s2500/Scan_20240125%20%282%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2500" data-original-width="1774" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHiwiKLHWSQdQTDdY4_dUhi50meg3-xhgAVP_NmN6227XsiHxL99VOOW-ibeB7xlEfZljKbwHu8u13bVxos1DR4OTBKn00aJ0NhVH8hA1StJigL-QE0kEm4yE8IxtWJ4i4WV1jA8sL4u-kNXThJnilhQY3Pt_p-LH4KY0GyiRCOp11Onyt5weJg/s400/Scan_20240125%20%282%29.jpg"/></a></div>
Huh, I thought the song started with "whoo who" or whatever. From 1987, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/42800/">Mephisto Vs. #2</a>, "Sympathy for the Devil" Written by Al Milgrom, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Bob Wiacek.
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It's been years since I've read this series, but I grabbed two issues from the quarter bin recently; and I think Mephisto was trying to pull a trading scheme like we saw <a href="https://random-happenstance.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-other-day-i-thought-that-last-sgt.html">Huey, Dewey, and Louis</a> do, except with souls. Start with nothing, then keep trading up, until he had Thor's soul. And I think Mephisto lets slip, he started with nothing: X-Factor thought he had the Invisible Woman's soul; but he just had her as hostage. But, if they made a deal based on bad info, well, that's on them! This issue is also maybe not a load-bearing piece, but is lodged right into then-current continuity; in a brief window when X-Factor was still running their fake mutant-hunter cover, Warren was in the hospital post-<em>Mutant Massacre</em>, and Scott's wife and kid were MIA but presumed still alive. None of the team does real well, but Scott seems to get repeatedly clowned and/or screaming ineffectually for Jean.
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I had needle drops in mind, since I had been writing posts at a pretty good clip, then got sucked into watching <strong>Preacher</strong> on Shudder! It's not as good as the comic, sure; and I maybe wouldn't have made Hitler a recurring character; but I like the actors and the music. And this extrapolates from a brief scene in the book!
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-85312433002084992742024-02-16T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-16T05:00:00.163-08:00February can be spooky-season; it's probably terrible out, right?<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi58mAG7QSSwM-jAPONxS-t2VjFecod-pzgqgaVNJ9TJ1IzeGhRSbbjwn2aqOcHCW8jkO6_o0GaB_iQNnioA3lvg-KKvGgc0yCi152KDlFZMITk4dHP2LVLJcjca2ZxVe2oHr1nh80qMvr-7BRXfc1mQqkHTuOUg_FFC7mlrZBA0UGmRAUGLl0XsA/s1042/hom%20228%201.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="1042" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi58mAG7QSSwM-jAPONxS-t2VjFecod-pzgqgaVNJ9TJ1IzeGhRSbbjwn2aqOcHCW8jkO6_o0GaB_iQNnioA3lvg-KKvGgc0yCi152KDlFZMITk4dHP2LVLJcjca2ZxVe2oHr1nh80qMvr-7BRXfc1mQqkHTuOUg_FFC7mlrZBA0UGmRAUGLl0XsA/s400/hom%20228%201.JPG"/></a></div>
It's a 100-pager, odds are there should be something good in there, right?...right? From 1974, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/27986/">House of Mystery #228</a>, featuring stories by Doug Moench, Robert Kanigher, Otto Binder, and others; and art by Sergio Aragonés, Frank Robbins, Bernie Wrighton, and more.
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I kind of liked "The Wisdom of Many, the Wit of One," in which a schlubby businessman tries to protect his shrew wife from a vampire, unaware that she was seeing said vampire, his former business partner. The wife dresses like a vampire from the get-go, and the story is interspersed with assorted proverbs. "Stamps of Doom" is an old reprint, then "The Rebel," which features Alan Kupperberg and Neal Adams art in a short environmental fable that seemed like others I read as <a href="https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?1624">a kid</a>: if you're aware of the problem, it's probably already too late...
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In "The Wizard's Revenge" a reporter tries to debunk a small village's local legend, with mixed results. "The Man Who Murdered Himself" is three short pages from Bernie Wrightson; then "A Coffin for Bonnie and Clyde!" is an oddball from Robert Kanigher: an undertaker, fed up with shoddy materials and bad workmanship, has a proper coffin made for himself: solid iron, built like a battleship! Bonnie and Clyde want it, to store their ill-gotten loot, but the undertaker makes a break for it and is killed in a fiery wreck; possibly because he didn't properly strap down his ludicriously heavy coffin.
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"The Dragon of Times Square" features a knight and a dragon, transported to and then from New York City; "Seven Steps to the Unknown" is revenge for a quiz show mishap; "Wheel of Fate" finds an archaeologist trapped by an artifact's predictions of doom--I hear 'Nostradamus' and check right out of these. Lastly, "The Fireworks Man" features an inventor whose new formula can make any picture, into a fireworks show. He is promptly killed by his business partner; an alarmingly common occurance in these stories; then has to revenge himself with his fellow ghosts killed in a bus crash by cut brakes. (Story by Michael Fleisher, art by Gerry Talaoc.)
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-18800404823203159792024-02-15T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-15T05:29:53.935-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP5cMHxFDlj583e0uSiUe5rAMojKxYL1yHhkNWvYUBvIRnxW1_vxe6ZMg4IL6MvVU48f_zxRibkI5ngm5JvumwJwLRceULjT0y2PsinQQrX_ZzoVkDmP6lZCytl0u30dF7jib-aK1D2vYAHts2idLfMx6A-Ltuwj62BTExeMAE22WE8TZE8Hj57g/s3052/Scan_20240121.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="3052" data-original-width="2043" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP5cMHxFDlj583e0uSiUe5rAMojKxYL1yHhkNWvYUBvIRnxW1_vxe6ZMg4IL6MvVU48f_zxRibkI5ngm5JvumwJwLRceULjT0y2PsinQQrX_ZzoVkDmP6lZCytl0u30dF7jib-aK1D2vYAHts2idLfMx6A-Ltuwj62BTExeMAE22WE8TZE8Hj57g/s400/Scan_20240121.jpg"/></a></div>
I bought two copies of this one from a quarter bin that had at least three; because the print quality on the covers varied wildly between them! Enough to be momentarily interesting, anyway; let's see if the actual story is! From 1972, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/25407/#172731">Brave and the Bold #103</a>, "A Traitor Lurks Inside Earth!" Written by Bob Haney, pencils by Bob Brown, inks by Frank McLaughlin.
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The government thought if they put nuclear command in the hands of a "compu-bot" installed a mile underneath a magma dome; it would be safe from enemy interference. Of course, it was also unreachable to maintain or reprogram, so when "John Doe" starts acting up, the government asks Batman to try and find the rebellious robot's creator. Batman works the case, eventually finding John's creator, an apparent suicide; but Bats realizes John killed him with an ultrasonic signal triggering termporary insanity. John might be found out, but what could they do about it? Nothing! But, Batman might be able to get some help from this month's guest-stars, the Metal Men! If they decide to reform, that is.
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I don't know where this fits in Metal Men continuity, but Professor Magnus was currently out of the picture, having become "the power-mad puppet of a foreign dictator via a brain operation." Feel like the Metal Men, or Batman for that matter, should do something about that; but the robots were currently living as second-class citizens. The surly Mercury is offended that Gold would choose to "pass" as a human, while Tina is working as an "all-nite" go-go dancer. Actually, it isn't clear if Tina is technically an employee, the nightclub owner may think he owns her. He gets rather casually knocked out by Iron, which is probably assault, but feels appropriate.
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This was a fairly common theme in <strong>Metal Men</strong> stories, although here "Robots' Lib" seems like a jab, like they were being uppity for wanting better treatment. Also, Tin has settled down with a little wife: who the hell was that? Actually, there seemed like a <strong>lot</strong> of robots, an auditorium full, at a Robots' Lib meeting; and the speaker's words seem familiar to Batman--because rights are universal? No, because John Doe has co-opted the movement. Batman approaches the Metal Men, who are divided about whether to help him or not; but Batman produces Professor Magnus's last will, which moves them, although Mercury argues Magnus wasn't really dead, that shouldn't apply!
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The Metal Men are launched through terrible heat and radiation to get to John Doe--and then side with him! John makes his ultimatum: robots would take over, because let's be honest, it's not like they could do a worse job than humanity, right? Batman works out an alternate route--through a bat cave!--to get to John, but the heat and radiation is too much for even him. He's saved by the Metal Men--how they could have saved him from radiation poisoning, um, well--and they say they haven't gone bad: John had captured Tin, as a hostage against them! (Losing Tin on its own wouldn't break their responsometers; but they wouldn't be able to face his poor wife--again, who the hell was she? Looks it up...<a href="https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Nameless_(New_Earth)">oh, no</a>.)
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The heroes manage to free Tin, and Gold rips out dozens of John Doe's memory banks--a slow, horrible death for a robot. But the robot had a reserve personality, that of its creator, that fights a little more before pulling its own plug. Still, maybe this could be an important lesson, against creating a race of slaves...no, we're gonna go out again playing "lib" as a bad joke.
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-85620585554284158402024-02-14T05:00:00.001-08:002024-02-14T05:00:00.136-08:00"Off-brand." <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG-8ADtiqTt7UYMtxy6ugDhBAb9SYjV2Pv0S2OI0p649XMb9PqQIxkgsZ-Ke2iV4-U7iEkyLqiqbhR16O1kr4Eu7P0uDfuP5f-PcWJ0guPrEqH3eTiDxq0eh48mc77Di-ceiJYbg_sBlasr6gXvijYsV6ygjA7cXvOJAiKTIsAo3q-XdRc6l2FoQ/s694/offbrand1.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="694" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG-8ADtiqTt7UYMtxy6ugDhBAb9SYjV2Pv0S2OI0p649XMb9PqQIxkgsZ-Ke2iV4-U7iEkyLqiqbhR16O1kr4Eu7P0uDfuP5f-PcWJ0guPrEqH3eTiDxq0eh48mc77Di-ceiJYbg_sBlasr6gXvijYsV6ygjA7cXvOJAiKTIsAo3q-XdRc6l2FoQ/s400/offbrand1.png"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3x2M62BpeMJkm3GOftlZWG-v9VCCLH5YHZrGVkgYIKo8RLOLpvL5Kr8jGAmTa_-A9b6wsy1aLMHoe1VZdSr9V3xxeKbOUd7kYf6jWkN51QywJTYJ9njk2r3PoPCj4jARD2pgDH95ywbmNxPgLX8SDnXALPi8My0V7TuTlX6598clixtvnxqU7TA/s692/offbrand2.JPG" style="display: block; 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The title for this one was intended to keep from disparaging Windex; the fact that it refers to the Squadron Supreme as well is just a happy accident! In-continuity right now, I feel like there's multiple versions of the Squadron on 616-earth simultaneously, along with others that have come and gone. We may have a jerkier batch today, and they may have a plan. A plan that somehow involves Satana and Talos? Oddly enough, yes!
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28703497.post-61730431857271129032024-02-13T05:00:00.000-08:002024-02-13T05:00:00.145-08:00Well, at least most of that was as advertised.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-vFw99nmARkiE0KK43ldk6Ml0NHLKyyWnDrOBHFs-FBg9snjxz1n7Hv9gveA-AB5Ff42NYUzBtfj1SeFLv_wT95atCH4SuoTk9exb9nShQV5Pi_J5bYW-m-oPpikee345SgZ9dZD8WxAlZhXEvb-d1w9mTOs8ZgGNl1H7GPKUrtX_fY-K0cosng/s3043/Scan_20240204%20%283%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="3043" data-original-width="2020" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-vFw99nmARkiE0KK43ldk6Ml0NHLKyyWnDrOBHFs-FBg9snjxz1n7Hv9gveA-AB5Ff42NYUzBtfj1SeFLv_wT95atCH4SuoTk9exb9nShQV5Pi_J5bYW-m-oPpikee345SgZ9dZD8WxAlZhXEvb-d1w9mTOs8ZgGNl1H7GPKUrtX_fY-K0cosng/s400/Scan_20240204%20%283%29.jpg"/></a></div>
Yet <a href="https://random-happenstance.blogspot.com/2023/08/id-like-to-read-issue-this-cover.html">another</a> X-title picked up randomly, because it had a lot of X-Men on the cover. This was promoted in the checklist as "guest-starring ALL the current X-Men!" And maybe it will illustrate some of the problems of the line at the time, at least for me: from 2005, <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/263162/#432658">X-Men #174</a>, "Bizarre Love Triangle, part 4: Election Day" Written by Peter Milligan, pencils by Salvador Larroca, inks by Danny Miki and Allen Martinez.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXvPJRY7KkROf8lI4Lo-wTeY-90g4gryav3MQ9SgO_hq7bKegyvsZ8N1cApLGVQhoRpzcnzceg8xFk9lhld5AChdVh7HcpZWX2ogmgxRkaW5I1jpe1otYHoUPaxPjHDgoloZOYLpBNC8pARwyET62Q7zqTbYZ1hA0Jd-UMgRBWBzvwswuaZyhs5g/s2019/Scan_20240204%20%284%29.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="2019" data-original-width="1859" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXvPJRY7KkROf8lI4Lo-wTeY-90g4gryav3MQ9SgO_hq7bKegyvsZ8N1cApLGVQhoRpzcnzceg8xFk9lhld5AChdVh7HcpZWX2ogmgxRkaW5I1jpe1otYHoUPaxPjHDgoloZOYLpBNC8pARwyET62Q7zqTbYZ1hA0Jd-UMgRBWBzvwswuaZyhs5g/s400/Scan_20240204%20%284%29.jpg"/></a></div>
Previously, a new mutant named Foxx entered the Xavier Institute; and in short order started pursuing her team lead, Gambit. Gambit had been going through a rough patch with Rogue, but rejected Foxx and was going to move her to another squad, when she revealed herself to be Mystique, and tried to seduce him again! Once discovered, Mystique then made an unusual plea: to join the X-Men. The team had a history of rehabilitating former foes, and a vote was scheduled. Rogue confronts Mystique, about whether anything happened between her foster mom and her slightly sketchy boyfriend: Mystique remained tight-lipped, if suggestive. Even Rogue's powers couldn't see the truth: she later describes it to Gambit as "a wall of white mental noise. She's had something done to her, or--" Which would line up with <a href="https://www.comics.org/issue/2584847/">current continuity</a>! Gambit denies everything, and Rogue apologizes to young mutant Bling for momentarily suspecting her of something as well. Rogue tells Bling the story, which she passes to her teammates, including Onyxx, who had been sprung on Foxx. (<a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Sidney_Green_(Earth-616)">Onyxx</a> was an odd design: Thing-like skin, a weird skull and metal helmet, four eyes.)
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Rogue approaches Emma, suggesting she could read Gambit's mind without him even knowing it--not necessarily suggesting she do it, just that she could. Emma might deflect that, by telling Rogue Havok had asked her to do the same to Polaris; which Rogue decries as "sneaky." Before the vote, Mystique stands before 15 X-Men--with a notable exception--and pleads her case: she was 80 years old (lie!) and her mutation developed when she was 12. She had been forced to do things to survive, and hadn't had the same opportunities or support anyone there had received. She had never had a chance, to be "good." Mystique is taken to a cell by Colossus, and doesn't appear particularly contrite: bored, she asks if he'd be up for strip poker...?
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The X-Men aren't a unified front here: Rogue absolutely doesn't want Mystique there, but others point out that's what was said when she joined the team, and she turned out pretty good. On the other hand, Mystique. Gambit sides with Rogue, and Iceman says he's just trying to score points: I get the feeling Iceman didn't have strong feelings about it, and was just being contrary. Polaris suggests the team could use more women, Wolverine says it ain't about that, Storm turns on Wolvie a bit there. No one there seems to be making a real strong argument for Mystique. Meanwhile, in her cell, Mystique is confronted by Onyxx, who wants her to be Foxx again. They fight, interrupted by someone, and Mystique finishes the fight by smashing a toilet over Onyxx's head. He seems like he's only staggered, but Mystique may or may not be seriously hurt; as she's confronted by Nightcrawler, who asks a favor: whichever way the vote goes, go away for a while, so he could sort his head out over it. Mystique's answer is a scowl. (I don't love this: it feels more selfish than Kurt would let himself be. Also, feels like the other X-Men maybe should've asked how he felt about the situation, which we don't see here.)
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Disappointingly, we don't see how the actual vote went, but Mystique is awarded probationary status. Rogue is sullen, and Gambit tries to cheer her up, but they find Mystique's cell smashed open, and her gone. Onyxx is hospitalized by Beast, who notes Onyxx had signed a waiver, "admitting culpability" in their fight. Mystique escapes with a shadowy figure, "Augustus," who would later be revealed as <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Augustus_Madison_(Earth-616)">Pulse</a>, a mutant Mystique seemingly intended to replace Gambit in Rogue's heart. That...that's weird, right? Mystique also says, she didn't want to stick around for the verdict, since she "could see in their miserable faces they were going to turn me down." But, she felt she had opened a wound between Rogue and Gambit, that would now fester. She'd be back, in relatively short order.
<span class="fullpost"></span>googumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.com3