"Rosebud" has always seemed hideously unsafe; I love it so much.

Every so often on BlueSky, someone will start another round of "what's your hot take" on comics in general, or even the Fantastic Four in particular. And my take may or may not be 'hot,' but it's objectively correct: Karl Kesel and Adam Warren should both have gotten to write the main book for much longer than they did. Of course, I'm assuming they were never offered the full-time gig, or that they would take it: Warren in particular might not be suited for a monthly grind. He should be able to come out of leftfield with stuff like this more often, though: from 2024, Venom War: Fantastic Four #1, "He Who Schemes & the Five-Minute Eternity" Written by Adam Warren, art by Joey Vazquez. Cover by David Baldeón; although now I'm mad I don't have the Walt Simonson variant!

The story opens with a skirmish between symbiote 'Rascal' (the Red Goblin suit, on little Normie Osborn!) against 'proto-symbiote' Flexo; but this is really fifth--or fiftieth--dimensional chess, between Kang the Conqueror and Doctor Doom! Kang narrates, setting the scene with Doom's "algorithmic means of mass scheme generation," namely a Doombot think-tank with weekly pitch sessions; which is of course laughably inferior to Kang's own "chronolooped mind-state" that he called "He Who Schemes." In fact, this time around, rather than leave things in the ape-like hands of one of those regular Kangs in real-time, HWS is running his own show, with "weaponized time-loops," and a secret weapon: the Fantastic Four! They had been kept trapped in a time-loop, that kept repeating and erasing their memories; enabling HWS to trick them into various missions. As Doom travels back in time to use Ovoid mind-control on Flexo, HWS keeps setting the FF on him, keeping him from doing a proper job of it, giving Rascal the upper hand...

The Rascal/Flexo fight isn't even a big deal, in the grand scheme of things, but HWS knows losing it will just gall Doom, which kinda makes it worth doing! But Reed has perhaps realized, that he and his team had been stuck in a loop; and they might get more information--from Castle Doom! Reed pulls another trick that probably wouldn't always work: stretching his vocal cords, to match Doom's, to override his Doombots. (The trick is just to commit to the bit, really sell Doom's ego!) And then the big one: taking the fight to HWS, who Reed describes to the Four as "a lesser Kang variant" delighting in his own cleverness but not as hands-on as most Kangs. After a brief fight--where HWS uses 'Kang' as a modifier seemingly a dozen times--HWS and the Doombots are trapped in their own 5-second loop, while the Rascal/Flexo fight ends with them both themselves again. This version of the Fantastic Four then doesn't really know where they're going to end up, but as always are willing to chance it.

This has not-a-lot to do with whatever the main plot--probably not even much with the side plots--for Venom War, and you know I'm always on board with the crossover events that are more like somebody got really lost either on their way there or their way back. Absolutely recommended! Read more!

I haven't seen the DC animated version of Crisis on Infinite Earths yet, and I know a version of Kingdom Come is still on a lot of fans' wishlists; but for me DC is leaving money on the table having never adapted this one: from 1997, Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone, story and art by Adam Warren, inks by Tom Simmons. 

This was a squarebound Elseworlds book, and I wonder how it sold. OK, looking it up, 21,066 copies? And I have at least two? Ranked 131, but it was at a higher price-point than most of the titles around it...wow, outranked by Superboy and the Ravers #9 and Untold Tales Legend of Captain Marvel? Sometimes I just want to take comics, as a collective, by the ear and have a little word with it...Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone is just good, man. It's exceedingly well-crafted and despite not really featuring the classic Teen Titans still says a lot about them.

In a far-flung future, a young witch realizes her satellite home was going to be in danger. To combat that, she ritualistically puts together a mythical team to fight the threat, patterned after the legendary Teen Titans. While she was the magic-y 'Raven' type, she recruits an energy alien living in a human corpse and a girl with a decommissioned military cyborg body as her 'Starfire' and 'Cyborg.' The last team member is her ex-boyfriend, but running a programed personality, of a certain famously brooding superhero, who describes "Dick" to a T: "A good-natured thug, lacking super-powers, but well-armed with a positive attitude." The new team has to face a colossal military death machine running amuck, but the witch is confident since in the super-hero myths "...in the end, the good guys never, ever, ever lose!" Maybe, but there might be more to that...

So, this has been reprinted at least once; and that Comichron sales page kicked over to eBay links to this one: there's several out there on the cheap, and I highly recommend it.

Read more!

I'm cheap, but this should still count as a sale for him.

I didn't think I was that far behind on this series, but I hadn't bought it since getting issue #5 some years back when Borders went under, but I just got Adam Warren's Empowered #6 the other day from Hastings...which is also going under. (It was a new copy though, still wrapped!) And Empowered is up to volume 9 and a collection of Empowered Unchained, which includes Brandon Graham's Internal Medicine one-shot.

Despite having started as superheroine-in-distress bondage pin-ups, Empowered has gone on to become surprisingly affecting. Immensely worth reading, and I'm glad I'm not caught up on it yet. But I am out for the long weekend, so have fun!
Read more!

Yay, finally got Livewires #2! Now, where are those other issues...

From 2005, Livewires #2, "Clockwork Thugs, Yo" Story and layouts by Adam Warren, pencils by Rick Mays, inks by Jason Martin. Recently activated team member Stem Cell is still freaking out about being a robot, on a team of robots, on a secret program to exterminate other top-secret super-science R&D programs, like other robots. Although robot is still the r-word to them, as they illustrate with Cornfed's helpful virtual tour of their "technological ancestors," from the Mannites (of late 90's X-Men titles) to the LMD's most famously used by Nick Fury. OK, pretty much those two, but still.

Poor Stem Cell is also mortified to be told that she's been transmitting her thoughts to the rest of the team all day on their intranet comlinks; until Gothic Lolita finally tells her. G-L also explains how their artificial intelligences are "'factory-installed' with exact software recreations of human neurochemistry," which would translate out to Meat Brain Emulator. They can all feel fear, anxiety, even panic...but those reactions are hackable, which is why Gothic isn't afraid to go down with a crashing jet!

A lot of world-building this issue, but it's engaging and cheery and fun. Glad to finally have it!
Read more!

Thanks to years of comic reading, I may only see four colors now anyway.

Ugh, my monitor crapped out on me the other day, so I had to pick up a new one. (The old one is no doubt fixable, if you had the capacitors, solder, instructions...) Well, I suppose I should scan something bright and colorful, to see if the colors aren't better than my old one. Let's see...

Hmm, that's no good...From 1975, Masters of Horror #1, "The Shambler from the Stars!" Story by Robert Bloch, script by Ron Goulart, art by Jim Starlin and Tom Palmer. I almost thought this was a Lovecraft story; there is a Necronomicon reference. Maybe I should've looked for "The Colour Out of Space," but it doesn't appear to have been adapted for comics! Well, moving on, let's try another book.

And that's not in color, and doesn't fit in the scanner to boot! So buy your own copy of Empowered #1 from Adam Warren. I don't have the full series yet, but it hasn't disappointed to date.

And now we're 0-for-3 with this page from Dark Horse's Creepy #5, "Loathsome Lore" Script by Dan Braun, art by Lucas Marangon. Oddly, I had only heard that bit about Charles Manson being a singer recently--supposedly, not bad, until you realize it's Manson. Maybe we'll call it a week and start fresh Monday, then...

Read more!

OK, this (last) week's comics:

I haven't done one of these in a bit, but here's the stuff I bought last week.

First up, Amazing X-Men #5, "The Quest for Nightcrawler, conclusion" Written by Jason Aaron, pencils by Ed McGuinness, inks by Dexter Vines. A number of plot threads Aaron had brewing for some time come together, as the Red Bamfs and the Blue Bamfs battle at the Jean Grey School, Nightcrawler's regathered the X-Men to fight the demon hordes of his dad Azazel and save heaven. The late Professor X tries to get Kurt not to go through with his plan to stop Azazel, but Kurt feels it's his responsibility, and pays the price for it. It's a pretty, pretty issue; but feels a bit rushed, and slightly grimmer than the art would indicate. Also, I know Wolverine doesn't have his healing factor currently, but I thought he did at the start of this one!

Somewhat conversely, we're up to the seventh issue of Satellite Sam, and the question the book started with--who killed Carlyle White, the actor who played Satellite Sam?--is seemingly no closer to being answered. It's still a fun, smutty ride, though I wonder: does it need closure on the murder, or will that wrap up the book? This issue will probably read better collected, a common trend for today's books. (Written by Matt Fraction, art by Howard Chaykin.)


The end of the world continues in both B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth #117 and Abe Sapien #11. (B.P.R.D. written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, art by James Harren, inks by Dave Stewart; Abe written by Mike Mignola and Scott Allie, art by Max Fiumara, and colors by Dave Stewart.) This issue of B.P.R.D. is the third of a five-parter, but still feels like there's some forward progress; as Liz Sherman and her team, along with the freaky Iosif of the Russian Special Sciences Service, fight through the monster-infested New York City to get to the mysterious Zinco Corporation and the Black Flame. Meanwhile, in Abe's book, a former Satanist makes some progress in Seattle, while Abe seemingly fails to save the small town of Payson, Arizona. Abe's book seems to be spinning it's wheels a bit, but still works as part of a larger tapestry.

The twelve-part crossover concludes in Transformers: Dark Cybertron finale, written by John Barber and James Roberts, with layouts by Phil Jimenez, pencils by Brendan Cahill, inks by Brian Shearer. The wrap-up is to come and will set up a new status quo for the two Transformers books, but not one but two former villains may have found a measure of redemption here. It remains to be seen how much it sticks, and if the death from the previous issue (which I still need to find!) does either.

Brandon Graham does most of the art for this week's Empowered: Internal Medicine one-shot, written by Adam Warren. Empowered and Ninjette race to help an alien living spaceship deliver it's baby, at a somewhat-deranged superhero hospital. It's cheesecakey fun! Except there may be more than a bit of foreshadowing for later issues.

Dark Horse Presents #34 was purchased mainly for the conclusion of Nexus: Into the Past. It's not Baron and Rude's best on the book, but seems to draw a line under thirty-three years of stories. (On and off!) I may have been better off waiting for it to be collected, because aside from the recent short Hellboy serial, there hasn't been much else in the anthology that's grabbed me, and it's $7.99 a pop. Still, it only has two issues left, so we'll probably ride it out.

Another book I may not keep for much longer: Regular Show, since this issue finds the gang at the park fighting the 90's for the second straight issue, and it's been moving a little slowly. For four bucks an issue, it wasn't enough.

Speaking of four bucks, I did splurge for Silver Surfer #1, written by Dan Slott, art by Michael and Laura Allred. Marvel's pricing seems a bit steep, but it is a good start to the series, as the Surfer is recruited to save the massive alien city the Impericon, and a young girl is placed in jeopardy to motivate him. Only, the Surfer has no idea why. Doctor Who may be an influence this time around, but both the story and the art place the book far and away from the usual gloomy, soliliquy-spouting Surfer. I may be in for at least another issue at this rate.

All this, and I missed Warren Ellis's Moon Knight! I'll have to hold out for a second printing.


Read more!

I'm only familiar with half the inspiration for this one:

Namely, the Fantastic Four half; the other half being Neon Genesis Evangelion, of which I think I've seen only one episode. This is Marvel Mangaverse: Fantastic Four #1, "Mega-Scale Metatalent Response Team Fantastic Four" Written by Adam Warren, pencils by Keron Grant, inks by Rob Stull, colors by Chris Walker. I mention the colorist, since the entire issue is overly dark. It's appropriate on occasion, but there are flashbacks to Reed Richard's bedroom that are better lit than a control room, outside, or a 300-foot tall flaming exo-form.

The issue opens with a flashback to a somewhat familiar foursome about to get their powers, and a bunch of cannon fodder: on the dark side of the moon, an experiment in descriptor theory is about to begin, but a younger and mouthier Reed Richards than we're used to points out the many possible problems with the plan. Like maybe blowing up the moon, or attracting aliens to come wipe them out. A year later, Reed is "metatalent ops acting director," overseeing earth's defense against alien incursions. The "inscrutable machine intelligences" designated today's alien bogey as "Annihilus." Like the other, previous attackers, this one is heading straight for the Negative Zone portal in the Baxter Building.

Feeding power to Jonatha and Sioux Storm, and Benjamin Grimm, the heroes form massive exo-forms of flame, invisible force, and debris, respectively; and all three seemingly destroy Annihilus, who reforms almost instantly. At base, Reed puts his "otherwise useless metatalent to work, stretching his mind to try and come up with a solution. (Flashbacks show Reed in bed with different women, who don't seem to find his stretching useless...and Reed likewise somehow managed to save the four when the descriptor experiment blew the moon in half.) Reed realizes Annihilus teleports an undamaged version of himself from an alternate universe every time he gets destroyed, and directs the team to destroy Annihilus's cosmic control rod, destroying him and leaving a lot of his bodies lying around. Earth is safe...for now.

Adam Warren wrote a few, non-manga FF's; and he's always an inventive writer. I reckon he's busy with Empowered, which I need to catch up on, but he'd be a good choice if Karl Kesel doesn't stay on the book now.
Read more!

Hack your own brain!

Today's post serves as a double reminder: I still need to find a copy of Livewires #2; and Adam Warren's Livewires was really, really good. The scans today are from #5, "Gonna Get My Brute Force On" Story and layouts by Warren, pencils by Rick Mays and Warren, inks by Jason Martin and Norm Rapmund.

The Livewire team is a rather charming and personable bunch, for a bunch of "semi-autonomous, artificially intelligent, limited-nanofunction, humanform mecha constructs." As one points out in the first issue, "'Robot' is my team's 'R-word,' if y'follow me." They're a rogue top-secret project, who's prime directive is to destroy other top-secret projects. Hopefully before said projects go all crazy-rampagey, although it doesn't always work that way.

The implication is that the "quasi-governmental" and corporate powers that would invest in such projects, are probably the last people that should have their hands on them; and a lot of them are just too dangerous to mess with either way. The series is surprisingly firmly set in the Marvel Universe, too; so some of the robotic projects involved use tech from the original Human Torch, the Sentinels, A.I.M., and a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D. ones that will be familiar but are used in a completely unique way.

Livewires ends on a bit of a down note, made even worse since I think they have a cameo in Iron Man: Hypervelocity--also by Adam Warren, and also well worth reading--but haven't been seen much since. A shame, but maybe someone will give them another shot sometime.





Read more!

Reading list: Skullkickers, Empowered!

Like most Americans, I'm on vacation today, and I picked up a couple books (and the new They Might Be Giants CD) that I'm probably reading right now!

Skullkickers I've heard good things about, and it's cheap! But Empowered I've wanted to read for some time, so this was a good opportunity to try it. Borders loss is my gain, and by my count there's probably less than a week left before most, if not all, their locations are closed. So grab something if you can!


Read more!

Vacation week: Iron Man: Hypervelocity!

Another trade that I actually managed to wait for: Iron Man: Hypervelocity, written by Adam Warren, art by Brian Denham. Not to slight Denham, who drew the hell out of this one; but I had been really hoping Warren would've drawn it. Still, he's done a spot of writing for Marvel on Fantastic Four, Livewires and his own book Empowered. I just hope he doesn't give up the art, though. (For my tastes, Adam Warren is up there with Evan Dorkin or Walt Simonson, guys who I want to see doing story and art, not just one or the other.)
Read more!

"The End" Week: Gen13 #77

How awesome is Adam Warren?

So awesome that he got me to read Gen13 on more than one occasion. His Grunge: the Movie arc is a modern classic; but he also had a good run on the last year and a half of the book. Previously, in Gen13 #74, the original team of Caitlin, Bobby, Sarah, Roxy, and Grunge were killed; their bodies used as fuel in a gen-active bomb. Now their powers are destroying the world, and it's up to their friends to put aside their grief and stop it.

Luckily, their friends are also gen-actives, and have more interesting powers: Nate is a quadruple amputee with "psychokinetic phantom limbs." Tommy can draw from the strength of those around him, and is very much this team's Grunge. His sister Sadie is like a voodoo doll: hitting her hurts you. And Leslie can turn her traumatic memories into new superpowers.

The bomb that killed Gen13 was intended to "encode a human personality into the Gen-Factor itself." Which, in theory, would mean not just having superpowers, but being made of superpowers. Um, kay...after a skirmish with hyperevolved skin cancer/guard dogs, Nate puts together the nullifier that will disrupt the energy disturbances; a process that involves Nate cutting even more pieces off himself. ("With no arms, it's not like I'm getting much use out of my deltoid muscle, okay?")

Leslie stays behind to keep Nate from sacrificing himself, creating a shield from the memory of first getting the call about Gen13's death. But in the end, they're saved by Caitlin, now transformed into a "small-g god." She smiles as she rises up and disappears, just like this comic: in the letter's page, Adam Warren gives thanks for Wildstorm not cancelling the book back around issue #74, "or even earlier."

I forget how much later it was, but Chris Claremont would try to bring back Gen13 with a thirteen-cent promo issue...and that's all I remember about his run. And I'm pretty sure the original gang has since been brought back, but I don't know how or care, and neither do you. Go read Empowered instead.

Warren is a great idea man, with a knack for dropping expositional dialog with just the right amount of snide parenthetical asides. I've been a little worried since I saw an interview with him that mentioned that he wanted to get out of penciling and more into just writing; which would be a damn shame. I do still need to do a write-up on the Fantastic Four three-parter he did a while back; and it's still a disappointment he didn't get to do more.

From Gen13 #77, "Dead Friends and Imminent Catastrophe" Written by Adam Warren, art by Kaare Andrews, Rick Mays and Jason Martin, and Adam Warren. (Wildstorm FX did some of the colors, but Warren credits Ryan Kinnairo for helping out his section, which was done on patterned linen-finish cardstock. Which sounds neat.)

One last "The End" post later today! You'll never guess, don't even try, but here's a hint: it's a DC book, that hasn't been brought back to date.
Read more!

There's no foreshadowing in this title...or is there?

I love this panel, not just because it underlines what a mouthbreathing slackwit Grunge is (albeit one with decent taste in movies) but that is a fair explanation for what passes for foreshadowing in most movies today. Anton Chekhov would be glad to know, if you see a harpoon gun in the first reel, you can rest damn assured somebody is getting harpooned before the credits roll. And I'm being generous: foreshadowing is now usually reduced to "Wow, who would've thought the girl who said she was afraid of dismemberment would end up chopped into giblets?" (Fun fact: I watch way too many crappy horror movies, always with the vain hope that they might not be crappy. Granted, a lot of them are mildly entertaining, they generally aim kind of low.)

That said, let's look a comic with some nice foreshadowing, that's also a bit of a cheat. See if you can guess the secret of "The Tangled Web" from Batman Adventures #17, written by Kelley Puckett, pencils by Mike Parobeck, inks by Rick Burchett.

The story opens in a jungle, as Batman jumps out of the trees at a masked, uniformed soldier, shouting the man's name as he comes at him. Batman hits the guy so hard, he wakes up on a plane, extradited to Gotham and arrested by Commissioner Gordon. And that's the second page!

In a large temple, a small army of the uniformed men are addressed by another, who critiques their collective incompetence. Luckily, he says their mission has been postponed a week, so they all have time to practice their killing, marksmanship, general evil, etc.

Afterwards, hidden in the trees, Batman, disguised in the soldier's uniform and mask, radios Alfred to update him and bring the readers up to speed. Ra's al Ghul has set up a major operation, in his ongoing quest to save the environment by wiping out most of humanity. Batman doesn't know what the big plan is this time, and is also suspicious that Ra's has delayed his plan.

And Batman should be suspicious: Ra's stresses to the base commander that everyone be informed of the delay. The commander did, but wonders why the delay, since he doesn't even know the target. Ra's assures him its fine, and they prepare for the Batman. Afterwards, Ra's berates his scientist lackey Asquith, who was responsible for the delay when he failed to take into account a local African holiday: his Bedouin guards took the week off.

As the week passes and Ra's heads for Africa, Batman still can't find anything at the base. Ra's checks Asquith's preparations at the African desert base, the Bedouin guards finally on the clock. R'as notices one guard's sword, and chats with him:

Finally, the gray soldiers go into action, attacking another base and fighting their way to a control room. Then, the leader uses a radio-doohickey, to set off Batman's radio, exposing him:

Luckily, the control room has a direct video line to Ra's al Ghul, who apologizes to Batman for luring him in with this diversion, but he needed to keep Bats out of his hair while he got down to business. Namely, setting off via satellite, a chain of explosives planted in the Antarctic polar regions, in order to flood large parts of the world, deafening millions with the harsh laughter of Al Gore proven right. Oh, and the drowning and stuff.

(Aside: R'as works great as a Batman character, but when you throw the assorted other superheroes of the DC universe, it doesn't seem as great, does it? I mean, if Batman dropped the ball and R'as flooded the world, Superman could still fix it, right? Unless R'as has a great plan for that...)

R'as knows Batman won't join him--if Talia can't get Bats to join, he sure as hell isn't going to be able to do it. But, he won't kill Batman, saying the new world will need him. Yeah, like to try R'as for genocide, apparently. But there's a flaw in R'as' ointment, or a run in his stockings, or whatever:

Robin's probably wearing a padded uniform, to make himself look a little more like the larger Batman. But the comic gets a little cheat here that wouldn't have worked on the cartoon series: when 'Batman' called Alfred, his voice would've been recognizable as Robin's. So, this works as a comic, but might not have in another medium. Unless the writer throws in a voice modulator or something. Aside from the size difference, though, I can imagine Bruce and Dick being pretty good at disguising their voices, and the voice actors may be good enough to fool most viewers as well.

Back to the story: Batman orders the goons there and surrounding Robin to throw down their guns. Robin starts beating the soldiers--no real reason, I suppose, just to keep his hand in--and Bats explains his disguise is more authentic than you might have guessed: "Ali-Yasa wasn't El-Shaitan's only student. He wasn't the best, either." With R'as as a hostage, he moves towards the plane, leaving Asquith to try to detonate the explosives. Batman, not being a moron, had already sabotaged that, blowing up the satellite...but leaving a ton of explosives in Antarctica. Hmm.

R'as signals his men to rush Batman, who isn't harsh enough to slit R'as' throat. As his matching Ubus attack, the Bedouins aren't as much help:

I love stories where otherwise generic henchmen opt out of taking their beating.

R'as escapes in his jet, and goes over the postgame with his base commander, who offers his life for failing, getting his ass kicked by Robin, to make R'as feel better, etc. R'as is big enough to admit he got played (or maybe this is a kids' book, and R'as can't exactly have his man strung up by his intestines here) but wonders if Batman thinks about the people he saved, or the world that could have been.

It's not strictly speaking a cheat, but the scene where 'Batman' is revealed, by tearing open the front of his uniform, does seem a little odd to me. Granted, I'm old, and thus used to scenes of Batman taking off a latex mask, a hat, a space helmet; and having his full Bat-cowl underneath. I also concede, it would've been an extra step, and looked dumb as hell, if he had been unmasked as Batman under that Snake Eyes-style mask, then unmasked again as Robin.

There's a little box of mostly animated style DC Comics in my basement, including most of my Parobeck Batman's. My son knows that one as the 'good box.' And he's right.

Grunge and Roxy panel from Gen 13 Bootleg #10, "Grunge: The Movie, part 3" Story and art by Adam Warren, and if you have even a passing interest in Hong Kong action movies (or even just movies, since a helluva lot of it fits) you deserve this. Get it now. Read more!