On the cover, they're only metaphorically making out on Lois's grave. So far, anyway...

In physics, the observer effect is when the act of observing something changes the outcome, like how when every time you watch a football game your team loses. So let's observe something four or five damn times and see what happens. From 1991, Adventures of Superman Annual #3, "Beyond the Reach of Time" Written by Louise Simonson, pencils by Bryan Hitch, inks by Hitch, James Sanders III, Joe Rubinstein, Ray McCarthy, Nick Napolitano, Jerry Acerno, and Dick Giordano.

Waverider, having time-travelled from 2001 to find the hero that would go bad and become Monarch, checks Superman's future for the third time here; and or course gets completely different results. Touching Clark Kent as he ponders Lois's future with him, Waverider gets a vision of a world where Lois dies in childbirth, prompting the disraught Superman to leave earth. Possibly just to die, since he didn't have that much air; but instead Supes is attacked by aliens who think he's an Almeracian. While they do a number on him, they are then immediately killed by a real Almeraican, Maxima, who rescues Supes. Badly wounded, he calls out for Lois. Maxima's handmaiden/assistant Sazu suggests a ploy for her to win Superman's heart: pretend to be gentle, weak.

While Supes was recuperating, Maxima seemingly allows her ship to be attacked by a race rebelling against the Almerac empire: she knows they look fierce but are creampuffs, Superman will clobber them, and then she can fawn all over him. So she feels a bit foolish when they turn out to have actually dangerous weapons, but it still works out mostly as planned. Maxima tries to paint herself as older and wiser and absolutely not stalking him, but also tries to convince Superman that he could help bring peace to the galaxy. Also, if he could get her out of an arranged marriage to cyborg lunatic De'cine, that would be great: Maxima was under a lot of pressure to deliver an heir and continue the royal line, which seems gross. Attempting to maintain a show of strength, Maxima is about to whip the tar out of some captives, which of course leads to a fight with Supes: she's making headway, but still feels the ghost of Lois between them.

Sazu has an idea, though; that might "kill several throats," as she puts it: she suggests to De'cine that destroying earth would cause Superman to lose face, and he takes the bait. Destroying earth would kind of get back at Superman for causing a rift between Sazu and her mistress, as well as drive him further into Maxima's arms. As De'cine leaves, Maxima's people assume it was because he was afraid of her; and Maxima asks Superman, see the crap I have to put up with? Supes suggests kindness may get her further, and suggests a test with a lowly gardener. The fact that the fearsome Maxima would ask him nicely, inspires the gardener to get her the best fruit; and she and Superman share possibly their first kiss. 

Later that night, Supes decides to visit earth, and Lois's grave, to consider his future. Reading his note in the morning, Sazu has to 'fess up that maybe De'cine maybe might have possibly been on his way to earth, although that certainly isn't anyone's fault; which does not go over especially well. Maxima arrives in time to save Superman, and incidentally earth; but then has to confess she as much as gave Sazu the idea. Superman is pretty forgiving, though: they aren't quite a couple at the end, but close; when Waverider returns to the present, probably having already changed the timeline. Again. His next stop we saw a piece of years back: Justice League Europe Annual #2. I suppose I should finally add some Armageddon 2001 tags.

Incidentally, this book did not want to go into the scanner; but some of those panels really show Hitch when he was a bit more Alan Davis-influenced. I know I have a couple of his issues on ClanDestine when he took that over--I feel like Davis never announces he's leaving a book, he just ghosts. Weird.  

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Back when a Superman/Batman fight still had a smidge of novelty.

Only 21 31 years ago! From 1991, Superman Annual #3, "Execution 2001" Written by Dan Jurgens, pencils by Dusty Abell, inks by Terry Austin, John Beatty, Dick Giordano, and Dennis Janke. 

After the initial framing issue (which I don't think I remembered had been written by Archie Goodwin!) this is the first chapter of Waverider's time traveling quest to find the hero who would become the future tyrant Monarch; and he's starting at the top, invisibly reviewing what was going to happen to Superman. The next year or so was looking pretty good for him, as Clark finally marries Lois; but their time together is interrupted by Intergang accidentally detonating a nuke in Metropolis in a blackmail scheme gone awry. Lois (and most of the regular supporting cast) is killed, along with a few million others; and it pretty obviously breaks Superman. He marries Lana--a bounce-back thing, but she doesn't care--and begins a quest to rid the earth of nuclear weapons. Which is the sort of thing the government loves, until he comes for their nukes: in 2001, Superman forces the crew of a nuclear submarine to abandon ship, then sinks it.

President Forrest has had more than enough of "Superman's law," and the news that seven sailors didn't get off the sub in time and died gives him a public relations weapon against him. He also tries to leverage that crime into getting Batman on the case: Bats doesn't believe Forrest, and considers him an opportunist who rode the Metropolis disaster into power. Angrily, Forrest tells him the Justice League would bring Superman down, then...maybe do something about Gotham later too. Back in Smallville, Superman was feeling the heat, but was more concerned with his mom, who was well into Alzheimer's.  Bruce Wayne visits him, and asks about the drowned sailors: Superman maintains the sub was clear. But Supes still refuses to back down, and Bruce notices him call Lana "Mrs. Kent" when he leaves: Lana had also noticed him acting like Superman and Clark were two different people. 

In Washington DC, Tim Drake investigates and finds the dog tags of the drowned sailors...how would their tags be recovered from a sunken sub? And why would they be in a file? Elsewhere, Superman is confronted by Fire, Booster Gold, and the Martian Manhunter; and is more harsh than usual with them. There are some troubling little things, like his snarky comment to Booster about gambling, a dig at his past; or letting a blast bounce off him and hit Fire. He also leaves the unconscious J'onn in a fire, since he knew his vulnerability to fire had been removed. Physically perhaps, but not psychologically: J'onn has a heart attack and dies, while Superman coldly remarks that he didn't kill him.

With the heroes and the government ramping up their fight against him, Superman has to abandon the farm, and take Ma Kent and Lana to the Fortress of Solitude. The unfamiliar surroundings do not help Ma's health, but while reassuring Lana Superman hears Batman calling him out, to a meeting at "a place in Gotham that's very important to (him.)" It's Crime Alley, and that and Batman's armor are of course direct callbacks to the Dark Knight Returns, but the ensuing fight is drawn more from then-recent Superman continuity: Batman still had Lex Luthor's Kryptonite ring, which Superman had given him for just such an occasion. Supes is able to slap it out of Batman's armored hand, but luckily Robin was there to help out. As Superman dies, Batman wonders who they'll send after him when his time comes.

Waverider isn't thrilled about seeing that, but at least Superman didn't become Monarch? That Batman, though...We actually looked at a bit of that issue years ago; and it would be a couple before Waverider would realize he was seeing possible futures, since Supes and Bats would get a couple annuals in this crossover.

I wouldn't have minded seeing Abell draw more comics; I only have a couple others from him. Read more!

"The End" Week: Captain Atom #57!

We mentioned this one last month: it's a War of the Gods crossover! An Armageddon 2001 crossover! The conclusion of the four-part "The Quantum Quest" and the title's last issue! And a complete mess! From 1991, Captain Atom #57, "Elsewhere (Quantum Quest, part 4)" Written by John Ostrander, pencils by Mike Gustovich, inks by Romeo Tanghal. And it's got "The End?" right on the cover!

Captain Atom has been defeated by Shadowstorm, an evil version of Firestorm. (Who was in no way as cool as the Blackest Night version, Deathstorm.) Meanwhile--or "Elsewhere," which is used like 21 times this issue--the War of the Gods raged on, as Waverider searched the possible future timelines of earth's heroes, trying to find and stop the one that would become the tyrant Monarch. And, for some reason, an entire page of Captain Atom's last issue is devoted to the Captain Marvel vs. Lobo brawl from L.E.G.I.O.N. '91 #31!

Shadowstorm unleashes the darkness in normal people, turning them into his dark army. But Captain Atom isn't quite beat yet: he had withdrawn into the quantum field that gave him his powers, and created an entire universe (!) to live the life he might have had if he hadn't receved his powers. But, playing God to change the outcome weakened the reality, until Atom destroys it and faces a dark version of himself. (All of which seems a lot more like Solar, Man of the Atom or Dr. Manhattan than Captain Atom.)

After defeating his evil self, Atom confronts Shadowstorm and lures him into attacking with his army, which Atom destroys. (Rather casually, rather than trying to save the people transformed?) Atom has Shadowstorm's number, as they wreck up an Eastern European city, and Shadowstorm turns into another evil version of the Captain! Unknown to them, Dr. Fate and earth's mystic heroes are simultaneously trying to "stabilize a planet made mad by the War of the Gods," while the witch Circe tries to tap into their spell: unknown to any of them, it weakens Shadowstorm through his connection to earth, and Captain Atom destroys him. The Captain then flies away, again somewhat coldly, leaving the damaged city and injured citizens behind, heading for Armageddon 2001...

Somewhat famously, Captain Atom was intended to become the evil Monarch...until a leak forced DC to try and change Monarch's secret identity to Hawk, of Hawk and Dove. This was pretty obviously setting up CA as the baddie--and he didn't have an annual contradicting that, like Hawk and Dove had, either. Still, the Captain had almost five years worth of development, that was virtually ignored ever since; since he's almost always portrayed as the soldier, obeying the orders of his superiors. Even though that doesn't make a lot of sense, considering his origin, either.

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Just like DC's One Year Later, except confusing and pointless...no, exactly like DC's One Year Later, yeah.

God, I'm unmotivated. A whole year later, and I still have the same wife, same kids, same job, same blog...and that's good. Um, but here's the bad part...hey, it's worked out better than DC's whole One Year Later thing. I mean, I didn't let like 50 weeks go by, then change a whole bunch of stuff or recruit and dismiss a page full of members in the last week. And, I'm not getting cancelled! (Hawkgirl was the only One Year Later I actually read, on the strength of creators Walt Simonson and Howard Chaykin, but it just never seemed to come together. That said,giant robot Hawkgirl seems like something I should look into.)

So, Random Happenstance has been here for a whole year, although I heartily encourage you to not check the May 2006 archives, they're crap. Really, I was still getting the ship together, and hadn't got the hang of formatting or scans yet. Unlike the masterpiece it is now...oh, you can't hear me rolling my eyes.

Still, I've had a lot of fun here, and haven't run out of comics yet. Who am I kidding, there's comics down there I'm dying to use but can't clear a path to; and I enjoy the occasional toy pictures as well. But since it's my...ugh...blogoversary...I figure the traditional thing to do is reveal a Secret Origin!!


As some of you may have guessed, 'Googum' is not my real name. Yes, in the best comics' tradition, it's a clever alias designed to strike fear in the hearts of...somebody. Oh, and to protect my loved ones! And unlike You-Know-Who, I'd never do anything stupid like reveal my identity because an authority figure made me an ugly-ass costume with spindley legs sticking out of it. (A giant robot, maybe, though...)


But why 'Googum'? The simple answer starts several years back when I was setting up a free email account at stupid.com. They were a little trinket-gift website that sold a lot of the things that used to be advertised in the backs of comics, really. I wanted a simple, easy to remember address without a bunch of numbers or underscores or any of that crap. Or my name, since most of the nonsense I do online doesn't need my real name dragged into it. Plus, I was living in a basement at the time, and was generally as antisocial as a troll. Yeah, that's changed...anyway, I took the Googum name from a source I didn't think anyone else would look to. (Although, I wasn't able to get the name on flickr.com a while back.)

Some long term comics readers may have thought Googum was a misspelling of 'Googam,' the son of Goom; a classic Marvel Monster last seen in Fin Fang Four. Well, no, but that may well have been an influence. It's from The Ren & Stimpy Show #13, "Ren & Stimpy's Eencredeebly Patheteec Excuse for a Halloween Issue!!" Written by Dan Slott, art by Mike Kazaleh.


Huh, Goo-gum's trademarked. Uh-oh. Anyway, now you know, and knowing is more deadly than ignorance, or something. Thanks to everyone who's stopped by, left a comment, or looked in and then run off screaming. Now to see how much longer I can drag this blog out...

Batman page from Batman Annual #15, "The Last Batman Story" Written by Alan Grant, pencils by Jim Fern, inks by Steve Leialoha. An Armageddon 2001 issue, and 2001 feels like decades ago, so you can imagine how 1991 feels. I liked a lot of the individual annuals, possible (if license-wise improbable) looks at the future. Basically DC scratching a What If? itch, but enjoyable. Still, 2007 and Harold never got to build Batman rocket boots. Thanks again, Hush. Jerk. Read more!

And now, a word on links, and some other oddball topics, not particularly related to anything. From Weird Western Tales #18, "The Hoax" Written by John Albano, art by Tony De Zuniga. I read a lot of comic blogs, but I've found that I don't comment as often now that I have my own blog I should actually be writing. Some of them offer new perspectives on old favorites, some are just hilarious, and others bring me up to date on books and characters I'm interested in but can't afford to buy every month. I am interested in other new or established blogs, to add to the sidebar, since that's what I usually use to get to them. I do have some other ones I need to dig up and add later, so if there's something comic related out there that's so great I should be reading it, let me know. Just for example, over at Brandon's Random Panels, there was a link for Matching Dragoons, a very nice blog specializing in Jonah Hex. I was reading some entries the other day, and then later an article on Newsarama regarding wish lists for future DC Direct action figures, and I'm surprised Jonah Hex wasn't immediately mentioned. Speaking for myself, since I've been on more of a Marvel Legends kick of late, I want Hex, the original Doom Patrol, the Heckler, and the Creeper. Yeah, they're never making the Heckler. Just thought I'd try to sneak that in, though. I'm kind of meandering today, sorry. Here's something else: Keith Giffen pencils from Justice League Europe Annual #2, "Too Much Time" Written by Giffen and Gerald Jones, and a ton of other artists, for a ton of guest-stars: Hex in the future, Bat Lash, Anthro, the Demon, the original version of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the Justice League America. Oh, and Waverider, once again kicking the space-time continuum in the crotch. This was the last of the regular Armageddon 2001 annuals, and on the last page Waverider touches Captain Atom, to see his future and if he is the hero that goes bad. As you may already know, it was originally intended to be Captain Atom, and it was changed to Hawk, of Hawk and Dove, at the last minute. Which I'm OK with, to be honest. Early in the issue, the Captain tells his team, "I just...have to be alone for a while...I'll be back...after a while." He then shows back up at the end of the issue, to everyone's surprise. "Hey, I was gone for an hour. I got a cup of coffee and thought things out. Why? How long did you think I meant?" After that, there was no way in my mind Atom could be the one that could become the evil Monarch. Not even. Anyway, more tomorrow, and again, if there's something else I should be reading, let me know. Read more!

Waverider? More like Cockblocker.

Comics have no shortage of alternate reality, possible future, or 'imaginary' stories. Sometimes, they're just a fun look at what could happen; sometimes they're an excuse to messily kill your lead character/golden goose and get away with it. And sometimes they're like watching preseason football: the A-list players sit this one out, and even though a whole lot can happen, it doesn't mean anything in the end. Case in point: Flash Annual #4, "Family Business" Written by Mark Waid, pencils by Craig Brasfield, inks by Andrew Pepoy, with a cover by the great Mike Parobeck--with Burchett! I believe this was before Waid's run on the regular Flash book, in fact, before Kingdom Come and every other big thing he's done. This was part of Armageddon 2001, DC's Annual event for 1991. The overlying plot was, in the year 2030, the future was ruled by fallen hero Monarch. A scientist gains time-travel powers, takes the name Waverider, and travels back to 1991 to try to find the hero who would go evil...long story short, it was supposed to be Captain Atom, and ended up being Hawk, of Hawk and Dove. (Yeah, I know. Try not to think about it.) The point is, Waverider would touch a hero, and get a look at their future. And this being the Flash's annual, it was his turn, and Waverider catches up to Wally at Keystone City's Flash Day. Flash is signing autographs, when he is approached by a young woman who introduces herself as Bonnie Blackmon. Since Wally was portrayed as a bit of a horndog back then, he's willing to hear her out, and Waverider touches Flash at that moment. Jump forward to the far-flung future of August 31, 2001: Wally's life has completely changed. He's married to Bonnie, and they have a son David. They live in Flagstaff, Arizona, under the name Edwards, and he hasn't been the Flash for nine years. In short order, David uses his superspeed to save a young girl from being hit by a bus. However, David has inherited Wally's speed but not the aura that protects him from friction and other effects, and is badly hurt. Wally races him to the hospital, but a scar-faced man has seen all of this. Bonnie takes a moment to fill the reader in on the last ten years: While working for Diogenes Industries, she discovered papers proving that she was working for "the biggest syndicate boss in the midwest." With a filing system that couldn't be beat, since she found it in a filing cabinet, in the main office, with a coffee pot on top of it. Diogenes (and I'm not sure why the name, since Diogenes was a philosopher--consult your local library or something!) had the ability to see a person's inner thoughts and secrets at a touch, and with his son was able to build a crime empire. He puts together an army of Flash's enemies (but who doesn't?) but Bonnie and Wally still manage to have him put away. Unfortunately, Diogenes touches them both at the trial, and is able to keep coming after them. On their wedding day, Wally's mother is killed, but no one liked her anyway. Forced into witness protection, Wally retires as the Flash, planning to return, but after the birth of their son, he stays retired. Diogenes still seeks revenge on the Flash, and power for his son. The scar-faced man was Leonard Snart, better known as Captain Cold. With his information, the usual evil plan is put into motion: David kidnapped, old villains set up like bosses in Final Fight, Flash called out of retirement. The villains are each given a secret weapon to steal Flash's speed, and a posthypnotic suggestion to send Flash to the next boss: Weather Wizard, Sloe, Steddy, and Mr. Sprynt, Rainbow Raider, Golden Glider and Chillblaine, and Paradox. Kind of like Spider-Man, it's getting to the point where one villain can't just attack Flash, it has to be like forty. Man, when Weather Wizard is the best villain you can call in, I can see why you call in more guys. I think Waid introduced Sloe, Steddy, Sprynt, Chillblaine, and Paradox here; and Chillblaine's the only one I recall as ever returning, since it's not a bad idea: Glider gives her boytoys her brother's cold gun tech. "This one's number six." By the end of the gauntlet, Wally's speed is drained, and he arrives at Diogene's in plainclothes. Diogenes plans to give his son superspeed, but since he lacks the "right genetic makeup" his son is turned into an ancient corpse, then Diogenes dies himself. Wally's then able to have his speed--and his aura--given to his son. Or, that's how the future could've gone down, if Waverider's touch hadn't distracted Wally. Diogenes' son is able to sweep Bonnie away, either back to work for him or to a shallow grave in the Meadowlands. In the regular continuity, Wally and Bonnie never meet, David is never born, Diogenes is never heard from again, and Waverider's a total blocker.

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08-27-2006 08;54;01PM

Waverider, like the Watchers over at Marvel, apparently never heard of the theory that observing an event can affect that event. After all, he would touch Superman and Batman--who had more than one annual--more than once and get different answers. Also, I'm not sure if there was any coordination, at all, among the creative teams for these annuals. So, you had different futures for different characters in each one, but also the technology of 2001 looks different each annual as well. I don't think any had flying cars, but I didn't read every one.

Overall, Armageddon: 2001 was an interesting idea, with spotty execution. Just like the real future.

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