Seventeen years later, and the series still isn't everything I wanted it to be.

But, I picked up some cheap spares at the last show, and put some on my brand new spinner rack, so now's as good a time as any! From 2005, Nightcrawler #6, "Ghosts on the Tracks, Part 2 of 2: Voices of the Dead" Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, pencils by Darick Robertson, inks by Wayne Faucher.

This two-parter continues what would be the major themes of this short series: Kurt has to deal with spooky magic crap, and has multiple romantic entanglements that go nowhere. Ghosts of subway tunnel diggers want their sacrifice recognized, and that's wrapped up relatively straightforwardly. Kurt gets a bit of help from Beast, in his cat-form days, who spends most of his appearance complaining that he can't get a date and Kurt's got Night Nurse-type Christine Palmer just pining for him. Kurt also visits his ex, current Magik Amanda Sefton, who also seems like she would take him back in a heartbeat; but Kurt seems weirdly tentative with both of them. I don't know if Aguirre-Sacasa nailed Kurt's exuberance, as it were: he would go on to write Riverdale, among a bunch of other stuff. I kinda wonder if he wasn't afraid that female readers would hate anyone Kurt hooked up with?

It's almost weird the ghosts, dead 70 years or so, weren't more terrified of Kurt; but Robertson draws him with the harmless appeal of a teen idol: pretty, but he'd bring his date home before midnight. I think the next issue they would put him through the wringer a bit more, but here he looks like he's using a good conditioner and taking care of himself. It's the weird little things I remember most from this series, though, like the idea of Jean Grey making the All-New class "play seance." Read more!

80-Page Thursdays: Justice League Quarterly #4!

We've looked at a lot of issues from this series, and I just picked up several of them that I'm not sure I'd read before. Or maybe they weren't that good, and I just didn't remember? Let's see! From 1991, Justice League Quarterly #4, with stories by Will Jacobs and J.M. DeMatteis, and art by Darick Robertson, Marshall Rogers, Jason Pearson, and more. And then I wrote this up, forgot to do any scans, and blogged most of the other issues already!

This one opens with an Injustice League story, as the increasingly sad team tries to rob a cult leader, without losing their recent "good guy" status. It goes about as well as you would expect! Likewise, Ice's date with Guy Gardner is a disaster, although in a twist it's not Guy that wrecks things, but Ice! Or rather, Ice possessed by a demon. That story features a couple supporting characters from the 1988-92 Dr. Fate series, for whatever reason.

Lastly, we get a series of strips with Marshall Rogers art!...for stories about Power Girl's cat. A crime syndicate had implanted the cat with a bug, in the hopes of getting information from the JLE's embassy to sell; and instead didn't even get any funny cat videos out of the deal. I don't know if these three-page strips were originally intended to run somewhere else, but they were burned off here.

I'm pretty sure I've read it, even if I haven't blogged it, but JLQ #1 may be the only issue of the series besides #3 that's a single story throughout, and that's what I prefer for this! I need to find a new copy of that, but I still have some other ones to blog over the course of the year, that are probably as blah as this one.
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He used to do friendly little Speedball stories, before Ellis and Ennis got ahold of him.

From 1993, New Warriors Annual #3, "Tough Choices" Story and art by Darick Robertson, inks by Ian Akin. In the lead story, Speedball exclaims how great it is to have more control over his powers, and not just be bouncing around "like a complete feeb!" That way lies Penance, you know...I rather prefer Speedball as well-meaning yet somewhat hapless, so it's weird to see him as somewhat competent; but that would get rolled back eventually.

Robertson would go on to do Transmetropolitan, the Boys, and Ballistic; so this is pretty early work for him. In "Tough Choices" Speedball has to stand up to a bully without blowing his secret identity, which means turning the other cheek no matter how much he'd rather not. In the next year's annual's back-up, he seems to have given up on that, and resolves to give his bully an ass-kicking...as Speedball!

From 1994, New Warriors Annual #4, "Two Sides" Written by Robertson, pencils by Stephen (J. B.) Jones, inks by Ron Boyd. Following his bully home, Speedball eventually realizes his bully lives in the bad end of town, and is getting a heaping helping of abuse from his father. I think Speedball's still considering beating his ass until he sees him bawling.

Just recently acquiring these again (EDIT: these two might have been new to me...) I read both these annuals and one of their appearances in the Kings of Pain crossover; all three had a ton of guest-stars. And the Warriors were a fair-sized team, so they were crowded books!
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The cards never lie, but I apparently might...

I was going to continue my completely random totally planned week of comics featuring Tarot cards with two issues, and one of them features instead of Tarot cards, a less...traditional fortune-telling tool on the cover: "The litter never lies...your fate is sealed!"

From 1997, Major Bummer #3, "Alone Against the Other Guys!" Written by John Arcudi, pencils by Doug Mahnke, inks by Tom Nguyen. The alien "grad students" that gave Lou Martin superpowers (by mistake...) give more powers to a batch of thugs and their loquacious mugger, because their grad thesis is apparently let's you and them fight! Actually, the aliens mostly just want to see Lou get his ass beat; with mixed results since the assorted thugs are generally as incompetent as everyone else here.

Lou tries to get out of it, but ends up in a fight scene with his wannabe superhero friends. They win when the villains accidentally create a sinkhole, but they'll be back.

Alright, no Tarot cards this issue, so how about this one? From 2005, Nightcrawler #8, "The Winding Way, part 2 of 5: Dark Carnival" Written by Roberto Acuirre-Sacasa, pencils by Darick Robertson, inks by Jimmy Palmiotti.

After surviving an attack by Vermin, and a bunch of hallucinations; Nightcrawler (with love-interest-that-really-didn't-go-anywhere Nurse Christine and here-for-sales Wolverine) goes to Germany, where weird happenings are maybe starting, after a bunch of flashbacks.

Kurt remembers his childhood in the circus, discovering his adopted-mom Margali was training as a sorceress, his adopted brother Stephen was worried about turning evil, and his adopted sister Jimaine (or Amanda) was looking hot. Good times. But no Tarot cards in this actual issue! See, that's why I do this stuff randomly...
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Last week, I picked up Ballistic #5, but had somehow missed #4 and I think #3 as well. (The comic shop wasn't sure how that happened, if they were shorted on their order or forgot, but they had received multiples of the first two.) So, since I got this at the comicon, we'll take a quick look at an older Darick Robertson book: from 1994, New Warriors #50, "Till Death Do Us Part: Time and Time Again part eight" Written by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Darick Robertson, inks by Larry Mahlstedt.

The conclusion of an eight-parter, this issue had a glow-in-the-dark cover version, that's also textured to have the feel of the sand in the hourglass crushing the heroes. The team had been scattered in time by old Nova villain the Sphinx, who was rocking the immortal Egyptian thing years before the X-Men's Apocalypse. The Sphinx's goals, however, were never all that clear, and really aren't here either. Aside from maybe, "kill Nova," but he waffles on that one all the time, too. Nova even points out that despite his seeming omnipotence, the Sphinx always seems to want to get beat.

In the end, Speedball wonders what the team was going to do with fourteen New Warriors, a callback to the end of Giant-Size X-Men #1. Even though there were at least four Avengers in that fourteen, and Dagger but not Cloak, there were also a couple even I barely recognized like Bandit and Hindsight Lad.
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Five, ten years ago, this would've been a Vertigo book...

...except that DC Comics seems willfully determined to crawl up its own ass and take Vertigo with it, so Adam Egypt Mortimer and Darick Robertson take it to newbie indie Black Mask Studios for Ballistic. Going indie possibly means less sales, but more of a cut, and they own the book if it gets made into a movie or cartoon...

Because Robertson was the artist for the classic Transmetropolitan, Ballistic is going to be compared to that, and there is a bit of overlap. But where Transmetropolitan was about truth and lies and media over-saturation, among other things; Ballistic so far is a little simpler tale of a wannabe gangster air-conditioner repairman and his partner-slash-parasite, a talking gun. Instead of the media blitz of news and entertainment and noise, Ballistic goes with a gene-splicing gone gonzo theme. (Yeah, Transmetro probably touched on that once or twice.) It does have an interesting setting slightly to the left of the nameless City; the island of Repo City, built on a plastic garbage patch and owing at least some of its DNA to a penal colony, which explains all the gangsters.

Two issues in, and it remains to be seen if the heroes of the book are going to get it together at all; but so far the villains aren't all that either. Twice mob figures have been introduced like bosses on a video game, but not done much. Still, the setting is engulfing, and Robertson is on fire: I've liked his work in other books like Nightcrawler (duh!) or Fury, but he had been let down on occasion by either bad inks or rush jobs. So far, this is a great looking book.

This is another book I'm probably going to add to my pull list, even like other recent addition Red Team, I'm not sure if this is planned to be a limited series, or if they're hoping to get a hundred issues out of it. I'm in for the time being, we'll leave it at that. I should ask the Comic Book Shop for a new copy of my pull list--so many cancelled books. And currently no DC or Marvel, although I might add Astro City, Batman Black and White, and Amazing X-Men...


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A "short" post today...

Bit of a dry spell lately for comics, so why not take a quick look at a favorite: from 2002, Punisher #17, "Aim Low" Written by Garth Ennis, art by Darick Robertson.

Unaware that the other is also on the case, both the Punisher and Wolverine are investigating a series of mysterious disappearances: mobsters, seemingly kidnapped, with their legs amputated just above the knees! After running into each other, Wolvie cuts Frank a few times, and Frank unloads a shotgun in Wolvie's face; before the culprits arrive: a gang of really angry midgets, led by the son of a mob boss out for revenge on the brother and mobsters that belittled him his entire life.

Frank and Wolvie get swamped by midgets--Frank has to admit, "If I weren't me--I'd be screaming like a girl right now." Still, despite the leader's appeal to his two "inspirations," neither hero is about to put up with a mob boss, short, tall, or otherwise. Frank goads Wolverine into getting them loose, then needs a distraction:

Frank shows the midgets that he won't put up with any criminals, and that Uzis aren't terribly reliable weapons if you're aren't big enough to handle them. In the end, Frank is left with the question of what to do with a very pissed off Wolverine; and his solution clearly shows neither Frank nor Ennis are probably fans of the "Canucklehead," who had just ludicrous monologues the whole time. Lots of Ennis's Punisher stories, particularly the MAX ones, are brutal; but this one is hilarious.

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"The End" Week: Nightcrawler #12!

Sometimes, when a comic is cancelled, there are unresolved plotlines. It's inevitable: the writer's trying to wrap things up, often in a hurry and with less space than expected, and something gets missed or left open. Sometimes, I write a bunch of intros for "The End" week and they all run together and I may use the same one more than once...And sometimes a bunch of new stuff is opened up in the last issue, instead of finishing up loose ends. Like this one! Nightcrawler #12, "Happy Birthday, Kurt!" Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, pencils by Darick Robertson, inks by Rodney Ramos.

The story doesn't open on Kurt's birthday (which is apparently probably November 3 or 10, unless it sometimes falls on Thanksgiving...) but with a typical week for him. Sunday he visits a local chapel for the elderly, with a blind priest. (That should tell him something about acceptance, if you ask me...) Monday, he gets a clean bill of health from the Beast, even though he still has the Soulsword in him. (Which would eventually be ganked by someone else's Mary Sue, Pixie.) Tuesday, he spars a bit with Logan. Wednesday, Emma Frost checks Kurt's mind, to make sure nothing is lingering in there from his recent troubles, then he visits his old girlfriend Amanda Sefton in Limbo. (Amanda was using the Magik tag at the time, since it was free.)

Amanda warns Kurt that the demons, ghosts, and other weird crap that he's seen lately, may just be the tip of the iceberg. Boundaries between mystical realms may be falling apart, and things may be moving...

Thursday is Kurt's surprise party, with an uninvited guest: Mephisto. Stopping time around everyone else, he has a little chat with Kurt, about why he was dragged into the supernatural investigations of late, after not really having a lot of experience with that before. Mephisto implies that a 'force of good' manipulated Storm into putting Kurt on the job, giving them no choice in the matter. Benevolently, he offers Kurt a choice: sit out the forthcoming biblical apocalypse, as a "conscientious objector." In return, Mephisto promises to spare his friends and family, and bring Kurt's foster brother Stefan back to life, whole and sane.

Not surprisingly, Kurt doesn't buy it. Socking Mephisto one, he lets him know what side he's going to be on. Time starts again, and Kurt returns to his party. His birthday wish is for his lost brother to be at peace, and when the time comes, to be strong.

...and the apocalypse was never brought up again. Well, that particular, specific apocalypse, anyway; since given the crossover schedule at Marvel, the world's been lurching from war to invasion to siege for years, who'd notice? A pity, since as Mephisto describes Leviathan rising, the Thing is there to face him.

We glanced at this issue before, while making fun of 'One More Day' way back when. Nightcrawler may not have been the best comic ever, and this wasn't even it's best issue; but I enjoyed it a ton, and the creators seemed to as well: they appear in the birthday party scene!
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Retro Toy Week: Transmetropolitan Spider Jerusalem!

Ah, I miss the days when DC Direct used to do a little bit more offbeat character selections, rather than simply grinding out yet another Batman or Superman (or now, Green Lantern) variation. From Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson's Transmetropolitan, Spider Jerusalem!


This was one of my favorite series, so of course I was up for a figure of the future's premier gonzo journalist. While Spider usually wore a jacket or pants when he left the house, the shorts look gives the opportunity to show off the tattoos. Still, he's not quite as articulated as you might think; and because of the tatts, he looks like he's going to have cut wrists, but he doesn't. Does he? Frankly, I always thought the shoulders looked like ball-joints, but they're not.
Spider came with a laptop, and his terrible two-headed cat. (There was a variant with a bowel disruptor handgun, which I believe was molded to his hand and non-removable, so...) I wish Spider had a bit more articulation, to better type away on his columns, or stroke his cat like a Bond villain. A better neck joint, rather than a mere cut, would've better served the character as well, but this was the state of specialty market figures around, I don't know, 1999 or so.
Unless a movie deal materializes (I was holding out for Transmetropolitan: the Animated Series...) I doubt we'll see another Spider Jerusalem figure. Which means, if you want him, well, you're going to have to shell out a bit now. I found one here, which looks about the best price you could figure on right now, but as usual, shop it around.




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OK, since I mentioned it this morning:

From Nightcrawler #11, "The Winding Way, conclusion" Written by Roberto-Aguirre-Sacasa, pencils by Darick Robertson, inks by Rodney Ramos. I miss this series, even though it was never quite as good as it could have been. Some of the stories could have been edited down an issue, and Robertson's art was mostly tight with occasional patches of sketchiness. (He may have been concurrently working on either a Fury or Punisher limited with Garth Ennis, and you can't blame him, those were great.) Still, it's disappointing this series didn't last long enough for the Nightcrawler/Morbius issue, which I would've much preferred to Man-Thing, Vermin, and Carrion showing up for no apparent reason. And I know from no apparent reason, believe you me...

(Maybe there was a reason, but I kinda doubt it!) Read more!