"Doesn't it suck to go to a job interview and see someone you know, going for the same job?"

Long before the Hellboy movies, there were the occasional crossover with other comic characters. The Batman/Starman/Hellboy (I may be wrong on the billing order there) is probably the best known, since Mignola actually did the art for that one; but it's not my favorite. If I had the old Painkiller Jane figure, she would've been up there with Ghost, the Goon, and the Savage Dragon. Hard to say which one's the best: the Goon one is probably the funniest, Ghost's crossover has the virtue of being back when neither she nor Hellboy really knew their origins, and the Dragon issues may actually be in Hellboy's continuity: they depict Hellboy giving Hitler the what-for.

Morbius isn't a true vampire, therefore, he wouldn't have gotten bounced with Dracula, Angel, and Blade. He's from Toy Biz's Spider-Man line, and of course the classic Beast and Daredevil are Marvel Legends. Toy Biz did make later Daredevil's, but I only have the old frowny-face one, so of course he had to be a cranky lawyer, right? EDIT: It is sheer unconscious dickery that the clipboard I gave Daredevil has an eyechart on it.

NECA's Army of Darkness S-Mart Ash towers over the old McFarlane X-Files figures, but I don't know if I see new ones coming anytime soon. Anyone see the new movie yet? I figure I will sooner or later, but maybe I would've been more excited if it was going to wrap up any of the lingering questions from the series. Hell, maybe I'd've been more excited if I knew what it was all about...

Conclusion on Monday! Have a good weekend.

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The Best Laid Plans of Mice, Men...Things named Ben.

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Will we ever see the Thing's Fantastic Four picks? Well, maybe. I have two characters in mind that Ben would want for his team, and that I have toys of. One's appeared briefly in a strip here before, the other I don't think I've used at all. Both are women, Ben's definitely met one back in his Marvel Two-in-One days, but the other maybe only in passing. Guess away.

That said, if I keep this going, I'm trying to figure out another couple of B-list (or lower...) Marvel characters that Ben would ask to join his team...that I have toys of. Hmm. They don't have to be in scale either, since Ben will be calling them, so I could use the older Toy Biz, pre-Legends figures; especially since I'm getting tired of waiting for the new Hasbro Legends. (I want Tigra and Nova in particular.)

Through most of the strip, Ben's holding a Star Wars Galactic Heroes Millenium Falcon, which I bought for my son a couple years before he was born. (It was marked down, I had the money, and I knew he'd need it.) The Panther's treatment of Ben is a throwback to (and exaggeration of) all those old Fantastic Four or Marvel Two-in-One issues that open with the Thing lugging around some ginormous lump of Kirbytech, for little apparent reason, like he has nothing better to do. Maybe he doesn't, but still.

And I swear, the "primae noctis" jokes were done well before I saw it again in Super-Villain Team-Up, with Dr. Doom the other day. Strange how you won't think about something like that forever, then it'll come up three times in the same week. Here's hoping it doesn't come up for you! Read more!

I'm not setting out to add to the bashing of Rob Liefeld, but does it ever seem unfair that Youngblood has had like seven launches, while most other books are lucky if they get one chance at finding readers? (Some other comics site pointed out the recursive nature of Youngblood, but I don't remember where, so speak up if it was you!) So, there I was, furrowing my little brow, vainly trying to understand why that should be while Strikeback! never even got a follow-up limited, and as the post progressed it actually ties back into Youngblood in the end! Really, keep reading.

Strikeback! had a bit of bad luck from the start: it was initially published, for the first three issues, through Bravura. That was Malibu Comics' creator-owned (or at least creator-centered, the rights may have become an issue) branch: Walt Simonson, Howard Chaykin, Jim Starlin and others all had books there. Unfortunately, the line stalled mid-stream, and Strikeback! wouldn't be completed for another two years, with the first three issues reprinted by Image, followed by two new ones. (Simonson's Star Slammers was another Bravura book that was delayed, it eventually found a home at Dark Horse. I'm not sure Steven Grant and Gil Kane's Edge was finished...)

Kevin Maguire was the big draw for Strikeback!, though. He had done other notable work by this point, but was (and still is) best known for his work on DC's first relaunch of Justice League. It's funny, since by the time he did this series I had already followed him through the Adventures of Captain America (a prestige series, that also ran way late, if I recall), but I don't know if Maguire was as revered as he is now. Again, this could be my creeping senility, I seem to recall a bit of resentment in the mid-90's towards Maguire (and Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis) since they had saved the Justice League yet it was thought of as a joke. The so-called "bwah-ha-ha" version had run its course, but the book hadn't settled on a direction since, and Morrison's revival of the book was still a couple years away.

It just seems like Maguire is known, but he should have become a superstar artist like Jim Lee or something. Of course, I read most of Trinity Angels, so I'm a fan. Good grief, I think I had that whole series and lost it. Good luck putting that together again...

OK, enough vile conjecture, on to the actual book at hand:

Our hero, the scarf-wearing Rascal, is celebrating his girlfriend Nikki's twenty-fifth birthday, when she's kidnapped by the lunatic bounty hunter horde of the indestructible Doberman. ("Nobody steals a bone from Doberman!" is his catchphrase through the series, as he holds out for increasingly large checks.) Joined first by Midnight Devil, who seems to just be happening by, then by his team Strikeback!, Rascal sets off to rescue the love of his life from her parents and her weird destiny. Comedy ensues. And violence. And some comedic violence.

Midnight Devil seems at least superficially similar to the old Stan Lee written Daredevil, perhaps minus a bit of the cheese: a cheerful, daring do-gooder; willing to help a new friend he'd just met. Most of the rest of the Strikeback! team has at least some history with the initial villain of the piece, Nikki's father Mars Dragonryder, who seems to start as a Bond villain type then goes in a different direction.


Short Fuse and Purity don't get as much page time as the rest of the team, since this isn't their story, and they would have probably been used more in future storylines. But Shorty does allude to the nature of the team as a mutual defense pact. It's like the United Nations...no, it's more like the Avengers, if they had formed with the specific charter, "OK, I'll help you kick Loki's ass, if you give me a hand pummeling the Leader next month..."

The book tries to walk the line between action-drama and comedy that the old Justice League did, and works really well: there's the drama of Rascal's quest, serious superhero fighting; a touch of romance in flashbacks, and then out-and-out funny stuff like the fate of Moe or the menace of Rock Lobster, Beef, and Der Flogmeister.

There is a bit of an odd scene in the first issue, where a random "Savage Finster" drops out of nowhere, then is likewise dragged off by a robot.

In the Image version, Finster's replaced by an equally pissed-off Savage Dragon, which I think was their original intent.

The brief (three-panel) cameo puts Strikeback! in the Image universe, but they wouldn't be seen back there for a while, until the crossover book Shattered Image. The Image earth is splitting into six separate earths, as the original six Image creators are starting to pull away from each other. Youngblood, in particular Badrock, is featured prominently in the first issue, then that universe (or some universe, since that looks like Diehard in the first panel) breaks away, to be replaced briefly:

From Shattered Image #2, written by Kurt Busiek and Barbara Kesel, pencils by Michael Ryan, inks by Mark Irwin. Almost immediately, Strikeback! is likewise replaced by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, before the worlds break into separate ones for a bit. Your loss, Image Universe, your loss and ours.


(The behind-the-curtain aspect of Shattered Image makes it at least worth flipping through. The last issue has some DC, Marvel, and independent look-alikes that get a touch over the top, but I did like one bit where an evil corporation had phone systems from Cyberforce baddies Cyberdata, and when that continuity separated, their phones disappeared.)

(Incidentally, it took me a long time to get to this series, since while I love it to pieces, I hadn't read it in years. I bought another batch of them for a girlfriend, as a feeble attempt to try and show her why I liked comics so much. I can't even remember if I got her the last issues, since there was so much time between--I know I dated her for a long time, but it feels like a million years ago, and I'm sure the relationship was on its last legs by the time the last issue came out. So, hey, if you see it in the sale box or Goodwill, look around closely: there might be some of the other crap I gave her in there...) Read more!

One's a hardass, by-the-book 24-7 cop...and the other one's Judge Dredd.


When it comes to action figures, not everyone is going to as lucky as Darth Vader or Spider-Man, getting dozens of different toys in various scales and levels of articulation and sculpting. Lots of properties would be lucky to get toys at all these days, due to fewer toy outlets now and the collapse of several smaller companies. Also, if you're a fan of a lower-tier character, like, say, the Question, your choices might be, um, one; and it may or may not ever be available to buy again. So, you might not get to be as choosy.

The flipside to that, would be characters I like and want an action figure of, but just one. I've been mulling over biting the bullet and getting the remaining Legendary Heroes and building Pitt, but I already have two other Savage Dragon figures. It's not a bad book, but I'm not so excited about it I need a third; and it's not really a figure I want to give to my son. (I haven't read it regularly in a while, but Savage Dragon is occasionally too violent or risque for a nine-year-old, although he loved the Hellboy crossover...) By the way, out of the six regular figures in the Legendary Heroes initial lineup, at least three are cops. Weird.

So, in that vein, let's look at before-and-afters for Judge Dredd and Witchblade, since my Wife was kind enough to get me them for my birthday. (She did raise an eyebrow at Witchblade's "costume," and I had to try to play it off: "Um, he comes with Pitt's head! Yeah.")

I've been a fan of Dredd for years and years now, even if I don't keep up on it as regularly now. The old one was part of a short 2000 AD line...hmm, I say short, and it had Judges Dredd, Death, and Anderson; Slaine the Berzerker, Strontium Dog, and Durham Red: not too shabby, really. Pity it didn't get another series, though: I would've loved a classic Rouge Trooper, and characters like the ABC Warriors would be toyetic as all get out. Thinking back, I probably paid full price for Dredd, but I'm pretty sure I got the rest of the line (except Durham) for something like $3.33 each, probably from a KB Toys.

I figured the older one would look like a Jimp now, but the elder Joe Dredd doesn't look too bad, really: he's a hair taller, more in scale with DC Direct style figures. I also like the older Lawgiver pistol better, and he came with a daystick; the Legendary model had two Lawgivers and a boot knife, along with the requisite more articulation and Pitt part (a leg).

Witchblade, on the other hand, is a character I've barely read, ever. Maybe a crossover here or there, but I'm just not a fan of Top Cow's line. Still, say what you will about her costume (or lack of same...see, like that) it's a toy that looks interesting even among a ton of others--like Bulleteer in DC Comics, I'm afraid Witchblade's for filling out crowd scenes. No pun intended. I bought the old version, a Moore Collectibles/Top Cow number, from a KB Toys again, which should give you an idea on the time frame, since neither company is doing a lot lately on the action figure front. She was only $3.33, I remember that much, well below whatever starting price she may have had. (All those figures I bought for under five bucks, and I'm surprised there's no KB Toys in my area, the toy market's depressed, and there's fewer toy companies?) Since I mentioned it with the 2000 AD line, I think this lineup was the Sara Pezzini Witchblade, Pirate Witchblade, and guys Ian Nottingham and Kenneth Irons.

The Legendary Witchblade doesn't get as many points of articulation as the guys in the line do, partly because of her size and thinner limbs, but also because some feel that too many points make for too many lines interrupting the sculpt. Moore takes that philosophy to heart, as the old version has a minimum of joints for that very reason. Legends Witchblade is also considerably less tan, shows less skin, and seems to wear less makeup than her older counterpart. Check out the new one on the rack, though: if her hips are rotated wrong, you can see her balljoints. Perverts.

So, where are we as far as Pitt? Well...

Ugh. Well, Superpatriot may win me over yet, but Ripclaw, ah, Ripclaw: trying to out-'extreme' Wolverine, and yet failing. Although, for some reason it occurred to me that I couldn't name a Native American character that I had an action figure of.

Oh, and I still had more build-a-figure pieces:


Let's see here: Witchblade's bike in the first picture is Kaneda's classic bike from Akira: from McFarlane Toys, it was sold separately in a line with a Kaneda that didn't have enough joints to sit on it. Dredd is perched on Leila's bike--the Leila from Futurama, but from Vampire Hunter D.

The Question was in a DC Direct wave that probably had a name, but included Blue Beetle (check), Phantom Lady (check), and Uncle Sam (pass). Like the other Charlton characters, Vic hasn't gotten a lot of toy love: he and Captain Atom have never been made in the Justice League Unlimited line, for example.

The Savage Dragon in the police uniform is from the 1995 Playmates line, for his short-lived cartoon. McFarlane made at least one other, since I have the one from the Image 10th Anniversary wave, which also included Ripclaw. A kinda terrible looking Ripclaw. Read more!